Russia reported destroying missiles over Syria

Russia secures its posts and attacks Russian missiles aimed at Hezbollah. Putin feels pressured.

Damascus – “The pivotal point of Russian foreign policy thinking is the USA,” wrote Stefan Meister. Vladimir Putin is trying to attract the attention of the US through increased actions in Syria and increase his own importance for Washington in order to get a better deal in possible negotiations over Ukraine, the analyst at the think tank German Society for Foreign Policy said almost ago Ten years. Just as the war in Ukraine lasted longer than expected, the civil war in Syria also dragged on. With ever new escalations – like now with a rocket strike by Israel against Hezbollah military targets on Syrian territory that was supposedly thwarted by Russia.

The Magazine military guard Currently, Russian forces fired 13 Russian missiles over Syrian airspace after the Russian air force may have attempted to launch an attack on the city of Tartus in western Syria on the Mediterranean coast. military guard refers to several Russian sources, although there is no confirmation from international sources. The last Russian airstrike against Syria dates back to early September, with airstrikes on several military sites in central Syria killing at least 18 people, including the British BBC based on a report from the Syrian Minister of Health.

Israel’s war against Hezbollah affected Russia’s own military interests

military guard reports on Russia’s long-standing reluctance to expose its own air defenses in favor of Syria. But apparently the latest missile attacks have threatened Russia’s own military interests: The attack by the Russian Air Force is intended to target the city of Tartus in western Syria on the Mediterranean coast and the Hmeimim air base have applied.

“However, we should not forget that the Russian leadership’s main interest in the region is to support authoritarian regimes and weaken the role of the USA.”

In 2012 had Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports: “Russia’s greatest strategic and geopolitical interest in Syria is the use of a deep-water port near Tartus.” The purpose is to expand Russian capacities as a counterweight to the US 6th Fleet operating in the Mediterranean. “This base is vital for us. “It is operational and will continue to be operational,” Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov, then commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

On the contrary, Russia’s outpost has been more consolidated than ever since January of this year: Russia and Syria have signed an agreement to expand the territory of the Russian Navy’s logistics facility in Tartus, according to the Russian news agency Tass has reported. “The current agreement remains valid for 49 years and is automatically extended for 25-year periods unless either party notifies in writing through diplomatic channels 12 months in advance their intention to terminate the agreement,” the agreement states.

Putin’s closeness to Iran is depriving Russia of its balance in the Middle East

Although Russia has withdrawn troops and material from Syria to strengthen its presence in Ukraine, Russia has no interest in withdrawing from Syria, writes Nikita Smagin. According to the analyst at the US think tank Carnegie Foundation, Russia wants to avoid any interference in Syria’s domestic affairs, but at the same time wants to demonstrate its strength in the region without letting the conflicts flare up there. Smagin writes that Russia is now too entangled in its war with Ukraine for Putin to allow himself excessive foreign policy involvement there.

The Russian presence was primarily concentrated in the Syrian province of Latakia, but Russian units there have largely withdrawn because Russia needed its experienced forces in Ukraine. As Smagin reports, this military vacuum has been filled by pro-Iranian Hezbollah fighters. Israel has been conducting airstrikes against targets on Syrian territory for nearly a decade and a half to cut off Hezbollah’s supply of weapons.

Russia finds itself in a quandary with its Syrian contingent and its overall role. On the one hand, Putin had repeatedly allowed Israel and Iran to carry out their conflicts without any involvement of his own. “Now closer cooperation between Moscow and Tehran as a necessity of the Ukraine war has seriously complicated Russia’s balancing act,” writes analyst Smagin. “However, we should not forget that the Russian leadership is primarily interested in supporting authoritarian regimes in the region and weakening the role of the USA,” adds Stefan Meister from the German Council on Foreign Relations.

The use of air defense against Israel could increase tensions

How military guard reports, Russia is relying on the long-range systems S-400 and S-300V4, the medium-range systems BuK-M2 and the short-range system Pantsir-S as well as various means of electronic warfare at the Hmeimim air base. While subsonic missiles were supposed to be used in Israeli cruise missile attacks on Syria, the S-400 and S-300V4 were already able to intercept targets that were traveling at supersonic speeds of eight times the speed of sound, as the magazine writes. military guard reports that the defense against Russian missiles may have been the first kinetic attack by Russian anti-aircraft weapons against Israel.

This would potentially place increasing tension on the mutual tolerance of the two countries’ activities, as Milàn Czerny had claimed in November. The two countries have never met more suspiciously than now in their history, and Moscow could lose its status as a neutral mediator in the Middle East and antagonize Israel in the region if the Putin regime moves closer to Iran, according to the analyst summarized for the Carnegie Foundation – it had also just become known that Russia would receive new missiles from Iran.

Missile trade with Iran is pushing Russia to the sidelines in the Middle East

The Magazine Forbes Recently reported that Russia had just received 200 Fateh-360 ballistic missiles from Iran. That would mean an escalation of the war in Ukraine – “and could backfire for Russia,” he said Forbes writes. The continued reluctance of the West and Germany towards Russia might actually seem “absurd”, as the German CDU politician Röttgen Flapsig, for example, judged. Loud Forbes Antony Blinken admitted that the arrival of this Fateh-360 absolutely warrants at least another conversation about it. According to the news channel NBC The US Secretary of State spoke of the delivery of Iranian missiles to the Russian invasion troops as a “dramatic escalation”.

Unlike European countries, Israel changed its course towards Russia little even after its invasion of Ukraine and did not impose any financial sanctions against Russia. Likewise, Israel has refrained from giving in to Ukrainian requests for arms assistance, writes analyst Czerny. On the contrary, Israel would have avoided blaming Russia for its attacks and concluded bilateral agreements with Russia, for example on culture; and Israel also continued to trade with Russia, which also pitted Israel against its own ally, the USA.

However, the fact that Russia does not drive close to Iran makes Israel an enemy of Putin’s regime in the long term. That alone, says Czerny, would be something Russia can get over, “but the tensions in this relationship underline the fact that by preoccupying itself with the Ukraine war, Moscow has given up its neutrality and thus lost its influence and is being pushed to the margins in the region .” “.