When the first reports began to trickle in regarding a possible Russian military buildup at Bashar al-Assad’s seaside stronghold at Latakia, the scramble to “prove” that forces from Moscow had indeed arrived in Syria led directly to a string of conflicting reports and grainy satellite images purporting to detail the scope of Russia’s involvement.
As the weeks went by, and as rumors of a Russian presence were confirmed by The Kremlin, the world became even more fascinated by the idea that Moscow has officially launched an air war in a foreign country. Indeed, Russia’s overt involvement on behalf of the Assad regime marks a change of strategy for Putin, who has been careful to dispel accusations that his forces are directly involved in the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Now that Russia has officially commenced combat operations, Moscow is wasting no time showing off its new staging ground. For those curious to know what a Russian forward operating base in a Middle Eastern warzone looks like, we present the following clip from RT [3]:
