Russia Pulls Out

From the BBC:

"Syria conflict: Russia's Putin orders 'main part' of forces out"

 

 

 

In a surprise move, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to start withdrawing the "main part" of its forces in Syria from Tuesday. He said the Russian intervention had largely achieved its objectives.  The comments come amid fresh peace talks in Geneva aimed at resolving the five-year Syrian conflict. Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose office said in a statement he had agreed to the move. The pullout was "in accordance with the situation on the ground", the statement said. Russia began its campaign of air strikes in Syria last September, tipping the balance in favour of the Syrian government and allowing it to recapture territory from rebels.  "I consider the mission set for the defence ministry and the armed forces on the whole has been accomplished," Mr Putin said in a meeting at the Kremlin. "I am therefore ordering the defence ministry to begin the withdrawal of the main part of our military force from the Syrian Arab Republic from tomorrow."  Separately, US officials said Washington had received no advance warning of Mr Putin's statement. BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says Russia has achieved its main goals in the intervention - consolidating President Assad's position, enabling his forces to re-take key pieces of strategic territory and ensuring that Mr Assad remains a factor in any future Syrian settlement. Russia has long insisted its bombing campaign only targets terrorist groups but Western powers have complained the raids hit political opponents of President Assad.

 

What did Russia achieve in Syria?

Russian aircraft flew more than 9,000 sorties

Destroyed 209 oil production and transfer facilities

Helped Syrian government troops to retake 400 settlements

Helped Damascus to regain control over more than 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) of territory

 

 ^ It seems that Russia was able to achieve two main things with its military operations in Syria. (1) they were able to protect their dictator-ally Assad from both the Syrian rebels and ISIS and (2) they were able to shift focus from their actions in the Ukraine - along with some of their special forces fighting there. Hopefully, The US, the EU, NATO and the rets of the world will see this for what it really is and not simply "give-in" to Russia and remove any sanctions, etc. The sanctions are there to get Russia to return the Crimea and to stop their support for the war in the Donbass. Neither of those objectives has been done. ^

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35807689