By Andrey Biryukov and Dana Khraiche. Russian President Vladimir Putin once again derided American policy on Syria as weak and lacking objectives, as his air force continued bombing raids to support Bashar al-Assad’s government.
“I don’t really understand how the U.S. can criticize Russia’s actions in Syria if they refuse to have direct dialogue,” Putin told reporters Thursday during a visit to Astana, Kazakhstan. “The basic weakness of the American position is that they don’t have an agenda, though we’re keeping the door open” for high-level discussions, he said.
Amid growing friction over the Russian military intervention that began Sept. 30, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry countered that Russia must make “good on its commitment, repeated many times, to help” the U.S.-led, 65-member coalition fighting to defeat Islamic State terrorists.
“The point we have made to the Russians, however, is that it would be totally self-defeating to the point of farce to try at the same time to prop up Bashar al-Assad and his murderous regime, which seems to be precisely what Moscow wants to do,” Kerry said Thursday in a speech at Indiana University’s School of Global and International Studies in Bloomington, Indiana . . .
Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed Syria by phone on Thursday and expressed satisfaction on the progress of military talks to improve “security in the Syrian airspace in the context of anti-terrorist actions,” the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement on its website. The U.S. has emphasized that the “technical” talks are limited to reducing the risk of a conflict between their aircraft in the skies over Syria. (Read more from “Putin Derides ‘Weak’ U.S. Policy as Diplomats Discuss Syria” HERE)
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Russian Military Uses Syria as Proving Ground, and West Takes Notice
By Steven Lee Meyers and Eric Schmitt. Two weeks of air and missile strikes in Syria have given Western intelligence and military officials a deeper appreciation of the transformation that Russia’s military has undergone under President Vladimir V. Putin, showcasing its ability to conduct operations beyond its borders and providing a public demonstration of new weaponry, tactics and strategy.
The strikes have involved aircraft never before tested in combat, including the Sukhoi Su-34 strike fighter, which NATO calls the Fullback, and a ship-based cruise missile fired more than 900 miles from the Caspian Sea, which, according to some analysts, surpasses the American equivalent in technological capability.
Russia’s jets have struck in support of Syrian ground troops advancing from areas under the control of the Syrian government, and might soon back an Iranian-led offensive that appeared to be forming in the northern province of Aleppo on Wednesday. That coordination reflects what American officials described as months of meticulous planning behind Russia’s first military campaign outside former Soviet borders since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Taken together, the operations reflect what officials and analysts described as a little-noticed — and still incomplete — modernization that has been underway in Russia for several years, despite strains on the country’s budget. And that, as with Russia’s intervention in neighboring Ukraine, has raised alarms in the West.
In a report this month for the European Council on Foreign Relations, Gustav Gressel argued that Mr. Putin had overseen the most rapid transformation of the country’s armed forces since the 1930s. “Russia is now a military power that could overwhelm any of its neighbors, if they were isolated from Western support,” wrote Mr. Gressel, a former officer of the Austrian military. (Read more from this story HERE)
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