President Vladimir Putin ordered “a significant part” of Russia’s military contingent in Syria to start withdrawing on Monday, saying Moscow and Damascus had achieved their mission of destroying Islamic State (IS) in just over two years.
Mr. Putin, who polls show will be re-elected comfortably in March, made the announcement during a surprise visit to Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Syria, where he held talks with President Bashar al-Assad and addressed Russian forces.
Intervention in 2015
The Kremlin first launched air strikes in Syria in September 2015 in its biggest intervention in West Asia in decades, turning the tide of the conflict in Mr. Assad’s favour, while dramatically increasing Moscow’s own influence in the region.
Syrian state television quoted Mr. Assad as thanking Mr. Putin for Russia’s help, saying the blood of Moscow’s “martyrs” had been mixed with the blood of the Syrian Army.
The use of private military contractors, something which has been documented by Reuters but denied by the Defence Ministry, has allowed Moscow to keep the public casualty toll fairly low.
Russia’s “mission completed” moment in Syria may help Mr. Putin increase the turnout at the March presidential election by appealing to the patriotism of voters. Though polls show he will easily win, they also show that some Russians are increasingly apathetic about politics, and Mr. Putin’s supporters are keen to get him re-elected on a big turnout, which in their eyes confers legitimacy.
Mr. Putin, who has dominated Russia’s political landscape for the last 17 years with the help of state television, told Russian servicemen they would return home as victors.
Wearing a dark suit and speaking in front of a row of servicemen holding Russian flags, Mr. Putin said his military had proved its might, that Moscow had succeeded in keeping Syria intact as a “sovereign independent state” and that the conditions had been created for a political solution.
Mr. Putin is keen to organise a special event in Russia — the Syrian Congress on National Dialogue — that Moscow hopes will bring together the Syrian government and opposition and try to hammer out a new constitution. He made clear however that while Russia might be drawing down much of its forces, its military presence in Syria was a permanent one and that it would retain enough firepower to destroy any Islamic State comeback.
Russia will keep its Hmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia Province and its naval facility in the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus “on a permanent basis,” said Mr. Putin. Both bases are protected by sophisticated air defence missile systems.
