On February 10, a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin took place in Moscow. Together with the Turkish president, an impressive military delegation led by the Minister of Defense arrived in Russia to discuss “issues of cooperation in Syria,” as Russian media reported.

Earlier, the chiefs of the general staffs of the United States, Russia, and Turkey held a meeting in Antalya, Turkey, during which they discussed ways to prevent unwanted incidents during military operations in Syria.

A week after the meeting in Antalya and simultaneously with Erdogan’s visit to Moscow, Turkish artillery shelled the settlement of Ajami, a suburb of Manbij, where the Kurdish population lives, during the arrival of a Russian humanitarian convoy there. The day before, Turkish 155-mm Firtina self-propelled guns deployed to the Manbij area opened fire on Kurdish settlements near Manbij after Russian special forces left them, which is a direct violation of the agreements reached at the negotiations in Antalya.

The United States deployed several hundred marines to Manbij, and in fact the city is controlled by the American military. Relations between the United States and Turkey are now experiencing another situational decline. On March 8, The Associated Press reported that former US national security adviser General Michael Flynn admitted that he worked as a “lobbyist for the interests of official Ankara.”

According to the agency, Flynn lobbied for Turkey's interests from August to November 2016. During this period, Flynn's consulting firm officially registered with the US Department of Justice as a “foreign agent” promoting Turkish interests. For this work, Flynn's company received $530 thousand.

While working off Turkish money, last August Flynn published an article on The Hill website calling for the extradition from the United States of the preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is hostile to Erdogan. The very fact of exposing the pro-Turkish activities of Trump’s former adviser precisely at the moment of aggravation of the conflict of interests between the United States and Turkey in northern Syria is indicative.

Having demonstrated to Erdogan that the lobbyists for his interests in the American press have been brought “to clean water"The United States put the most convincing argument on the scales of the conflict - the battalion of American Marines in Manbij.

Perhaps this is why the Turks do not shell Manbij. But a city suburb with a compact population of Kurds, from which Russian special forces left, was shelled.

Violation of any and all agreements by almost all participants in the Middle East conflict has long been the order of things. But the recent statement by one of the commanders of the Shiite volunteer formations of Iraq “Hashd al-Shaabi” (“Popular Mobilization Forces”), Javad al-Talaibashi, that US Air Force helicopters evacuated ISIS commanders (banned in the Russian Federation) from western Mosul is surprising. According to According to the commander of the Shiite militia of Iraq, “during the rapid advance of pro-government forces, two high-ranking officials of the “Caliphate” were blocked in one of the western districts of the city. However, Iraqi fighters did not have time to capture them because American helicopters came to the aid of the terrorists.”

Al-Talaibashi does not know where the jihadist leaders were evacuated, but he is sure that “this was done to save US plans in the region.” This, according to him, is not the first time - the evacuation of ISIS leaders also occurred in the city of Tel Afar, after it was surrounded by Iraqi troops. It is reported that Iraqi parliamentary security member Iskandar Watut has photographs and videos showing US planes dropping “weapons, food and other necessary items” to terrorists.

If facts of US assistance to ISIS leaders were reported only by the commanders of the Shiite militia, which is financed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, the irreconcilable enemy of the “Big Shaitan” (USA), then this could be classified as ordinary military propaganda, where lies are not only acceptable, but inevitable and preferable. But the statements of the member of the Iraqi parliament can hardly be attributed to direct disinformation. Of course, it would be much more convincing if he showed the world media the documentary evidence he has of US assistance to jihadists. Until this happens, all statements of this kind hang in the air.

IN double play On the battlefields of the Middle East, the Russian side is also blamed. On March 7, the French publication Le Figaro published messages from journalist Georges Malbruno on Twitter, according to which on the night of January 13, Israeli F-35 fighters destroyed warehouses with Pantsir air defense missiles intended for Hezbollah units in the Damascus area, and also a battery of the S-300 air defense system.

According to a French journalist, the strikes were carried out “on targets near Mezzeh airport and on Mount Qasiun,” not far from the presidential palace.

According to the website "raialyoum.com", in addition to targets at the Mezzeh airfield, Israeli planes attacked the headquarters of the 4th Armored Division of the Syrian Army. It was also alleged that the F-35 operated in support of other types of Israeli aircraft.

The fact of this attack is confirmed by Arab television channels. Al-Arabiya TV channel, citing sources in the Syrian opposition, reported that several Syrian army officers were killed as a result of the airstrike. The Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen reported four wounded, which is most likely a clear understatement of losses.

The strange passivity of the Russian S-400 air defense systems is also discussed, which for some unknown reason did not even try to shoot down Israeli planes that attacked the capital of a state friendly to Russia. There are two versions in use. According to one of them, the capabilities of Russian anti-aircraft missile systems are exaggerated, and the latest American superfighters are not detected by them. According to the second version, which seems more likely to me, there is an unspoken agreement between Israel and Russia, which was reported by the Russian agency RIA Novosti in a commentary on the March 9 visit of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to Moscow:

“The Israeli prime minister probably had something to say to the Russian president. In particular, discuss the conditions for further maintaining the Israeli-Russian compromise on Syria (within the framework of which Israel does not prevent Putin from saving Bashar Assad, and Putin does not prevent Israel from bombing warehouses with Russian or other weapons that Assad transfers to Hezbollah, Israel’s enemy). And also to minimize the risk of possible casualties on the part of Russian military advisers when the Israeli army implements the terms of this compromise.”

If we ignore behind-the-scenes political conflicts, which most likely explain the strange passivity of the Russian S-400 air defense systems, then there is no doubt that the Israeli fighter has definitely not seen the S-300 air defense systems. But Iran has just deployed these Russian air defense systems as the basis of its air defense.

Alternatively, the Syrian service personnel of the S-300 air defense system were simply sleeping when the Israelis attacked, or do not have sufficient qualifications to work with complex military equipment. I admit that both are possible.

What is happening now in Syria and Iraq is reminiscent of the battles of the era of the warring states in ancient China, observing which Sun Tzu said that war is the way of deception. It seems that literally everyone in the Middle East is going this route. It is clear that not everyone will benefit equally from this “risky journey.” At the moment, I do not know a single fact that suggests that Russia will be among the beneficiaries of the protracted regional conflict.

What's really happening in Syria. First, in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, the Assad regime is consolidating its power after months of fighting with rebels. “Battles,” as happened in Aleppo at one time, are nothing more than a war crime: Russian and Syrian planes continuously strike civilian population and civil infrastructure - both night and day. No one in the world will even mention what is happening during these “battles.” Southern Damascus is under ISIS control (an organization banned in Russia - editor's note). There is no doubt that they will be the next target of total destruction and murder.

Secondly, a huge flow of refugees from areas close to Damascus to northern Syria is already underway and will increase in the near future. The Assad regime is encouraging Sunni citizens to leave their places and move to the north of the country. Russian forces provide the ability to move this flow.

Context

Russians won't stop halfway

Ar Rai Al Youm 04/12/2018

Will Russia be able to shoot down American missiles in Syria?

The National Interest 04/12/2018

Trump tweet on Syria rocks stock markets

Bloomberg 04/12/2018

Where is our “Thank you, America”?

InoTVIT 04/12/2018 Thirdly, virtually the entire north of Syria has turned into a Turkish security zone in which the army of this country is stationed. Erdogan's Turkey becomes the patron state of Islamic insurgent movements and the Sunni population that has fled other parts of the country. It appears that only Ankara's fears of Moscow's reaction are preventing the Turks from taking control of Aleppo, much of which is controlled by Russian forces.

Fourthly, these days new borders of Syria are being formed: the Turks are in the north of the country (except for one Kurdish enclave), nearby is the large enclave of Idlib, which is controlled by Islamic rebels receiving Turkish patronage. This is approximately 15% of Syrian territory. In northeastern Syria, the Kurds, who are supported by the United States, hold power. This is almost 30% of the country's territory. There is a lot of oil and gas in this area. Hezbollah has taken control of mountainous areas in western Syria. In the Golan Heights, Israel maintains its interests. Formally, Assad controls 50% of Syria. However, he is not the real owner. They are Russia and Iran.

Fifthly, ex-president US Barack Obama ignored the genocide that took place in Syria, and thereby opened the gates of this country to Russia. Original sin lies on it. Is Trump repeating the policies of his predecessor? On the one hand, he wants to escape responsibility and abandon the Kurds, who did the “dirty work” for the United States in defeating ISIS. On the other hand, it is difficult for him to ignore the use chemical weapons and limit yourself to minor actions. What will he decide? We don't know yet.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

It is naive to believe that the situation in the Middle East today is controlled by some global behind-the-scenes force that started the conflict in Syria, trying to achieve some of its secret interests. This is wrong. In the Middle East, it is primarily regional actors who sort things out among themselves.

Thus, three major Middle Eastern players were involved in the Syrian conflict. These are Saudi Arabia, Iran and Türkiye. All other forces are secondary. However, they do not play the same game - each plays their own.

Saudi Arabia all last years is guided by a single goal - to become the undisputed leader of the entire Arab world. And in general, the country has indeed succeeded in achieving dominance in the Middle East in many respects, despite all the efforts of its rivals to prevent this.

Until 2011, Egypt was the main contender for leadership in the region, but the events of the Arab Spring left the country, which found itself in a very difficult economic situation, no chance.

On this wave, Qatar (in alliance with Turkey) decided to try its luck, achieving particular success in 2011-2012. In 2012, Mohammed Morsi, representing the Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimun* movement, closely associated with Qatar and Turkey at that time, became the President of Egypt. A very real threat of dual Qatari-Turkish hegemony in the region began to loom before Saudi Arabia.

However, Saudi Arabia still outplayed Qatar by creating a coalition of all countries Persian Gulf(except, of course, Qatar and, to some extent, pursuing a fairly independent policy of Oman), who jointly averted this very small, but rich country, which loudly declared itself during the Arab Spring, has been relegated to the background.

We must pay tribute to the skills of Saudi diplomats: the Egyptian military, Israel, the financial sharks of Dubai, the Egyptian Trotskyist leftists, the realist politicians of the United States, and even Russia acted as a united anti-Ikhwank-anti-Qatar front. In 2013, Morsi was overthrown by this extremely broad coalition, and the Muslim Brotherhood was defeated.

This effectively ends the Qatari intrigue in the Middle East. But this episode is important for another reason: Saudi Arabia then demonstrated to the whole world its ability to use external forces, among which, when the Arabs needed it, were the United States and, in certain episodes, Russia.

The current President of Egypt Al-Sisi, by the way, receives money from Saudi Arabia (as, incidentally, before that Morsi received money from Qatar), and as they say, he who pays the money calls the tune. Of course, there can be no talk of any independent policy for Egypt now.

The main competitors of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East today are Iran and Turkey, and the main axis of confrontation directly in Syria is certainly the Saudi-Iranian axis, which is further complicated by Turkish intervention.

It is usually said that Iran supports Damascus simply because it supports the Shiites in the fight against the Sunnis. Everything, of course, is much more complicated. For example, calling Yemeni Zaydis Shiites can be a stretch, but Alawites are generally representatives of a religion that cannot, strictly speaking, be considered Islam (I’m afraid that only representatives of the dedicated Alawite religious elite will agree with me on this in their hearts, ukkal, but not the uninitiated ordinary Alawite masses, jukhhal). And in Shiite educational institutions, until quite recently, they taught that a Shiite who shakes hands with an Alawite is obliged to undergo a certain purification rite before praying. I witnessed this myself.

But the Iranians showed miracles of wisdom in diplomacy, managing to forget the old ritual contradictions and creating a very broad coalition of movements that had not been considered Shiism for a very long time and which, due to external threats, are ready to join virtually anyone, forgetting the old differences.

By creating an “anti-Wahhabi” coalition, Iran pursued a very specific goal: to strengthen its position in the Arab world and create a counterbalance to Saudi Arabia.

Allies were needed, which Iran found primarily among the colossal Shiite community of Iraq, the Shiite majority population of Bahrain, in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia itself, Lebanon - a country of minorities where no group is a majority at all, the Houthis of Yemen and, of course, the Shiites, Alawites and generally non-Sunni Syrians, who for the most part in the current situation are on the side of Assad.

Also on the side of Iran is the abnormally strong Lebanese Hezbollah, which at one time withstood direct confrontation with the most powerful militarily power - Israel, which was once capable of defeating several Arab states that were many times larger than it in six days. Hezbollah is one of the few forces in the region that supports the Assad regime and the Syrian Shiites sincerely, out of a sense of duty to its loyal allies. Largely because they found themselves in an extremely difficult situation, but, of course, also to fight for self-preservation, realizing that the fall of the Assad regime could catastrophically undermine the position of the Shiite community in Lebanon.

In general, many local residents, not without some reason, consider Lebanon and Syria to be one country. In the event of the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Lebanon, the Sunnis would definitely strengthen, which is absolutely unacceptable for Hezbollah, so the decision to support the Syrian president was the only possible one for this most powerful fighting force in Lebanon.

But you still need to assess Iran’s strengths sensibly: having scattered groups of non-Sunni minorities as allies, achieving total dominance in the Middle East today is unrealistic. However, it is quite possible to create a tangible counterbalance to the regional dominance of Saudi Arabia, which is already a significant success.

Turkey's main interest in Syria is the Kurds, and for this reason its gross interference in the affairs of its neighbor was inevitable. At the same time, it would seem that Turkey’s absolutely illogical and barbaric first intervention in Syria on the side of Assad’s opponents was associated primarily with an attempt to strengthen its position as a regional leader, which Turkey claims on a par with Saudi Arabia and Iran.

It is important that there was no extraordinary tension between Turkey and the Assad regime before the Arab Spring, but in 2012 the Turks carried out a fundamentally wrong political analysis, believing, like the whole world, with the exception of some experts, that the fall of the Assad regime is a matter of literally a few days or at most weeks. Well, ignorance of the specifics of Syrian political culture took its toll.

It seemed to everyone that if several districts of the capital were occupied by the rebels, then the regime would inevitably come to an end. The Turks were preparing to divide the spoils and intervened, hoping to grab something from the remnants of Syria, ahead of Saudi Arabia in this. But the regime still did not fall.

And, of course, Turkish politicians could not help but take the chance to advertise themselves by supporting the Turks living on the northern border of the country. However important task, as in 2012, now - wait for the collapse of Syria and grab your piece of the pie. The Turks cannot allow Syria to be divided between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Although now the task of preventing the unification of the Kurdish lands into a single belt, which would generally take Turkey out of the “Syrian game”, has almost come to the fore for Turkey, and also raised the question of creating a Kurdish state, which could not but stimulate there is already an active movement for Kurdish independence in Turkey itself. In order to prevent the unification of the two Kurdish enclaves of Syria into one, the Turks are quite ready to enter into confrontation with IS* and occupy IS-controlled territories - the main thing is that the Kurds do not have time to occupy them.

Quite often, events occur in the Middle East that, if you think about it, do not correspond to the interests of Russia, the United States or Europe, but we are accustomed to looking at the East precisely through the prism of the interests of the West, not paying attention to the interests of macro-players in the region itself. The problem is that many of the events that seem inexplicable to us often fully correspond to the interests of the Middle Eastern powers.

Russia is acting in Syria at the invitation of Assad. The Americans invited themselves. And most often it turns out that through the hands of the United States, local actors who are dividing spheres of influence are trying to achieve their own goals.

The Americans probably began to guess about this, but if so, then now they can no longer just up and leave Syria. This would mean a complete loss of face. Therefore, they are forced to help Middle Eastern players divide Syria among themselves, hiding behind their own national interests, which the United States, of course, does not have in Syria.

Now, for example, they are doing a good job of playing along with the interests of the Syrian Kurds, among whom, by the way, a party of openly leftist orientation dominates, as a result of which American special forces often have to fight fighting in overalls with almost communist symbols...

There is a so-called “war by proxy” between various players. Let's consider (in alphabetical order) the main ones:

Israel. For the Israelis, virtually all parties to this war (except Russia, the USA and the Kurds) are opponents. Oddly enough, the obvious idea “it is better to have a secular Assad at your borders than the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda” is not particularly popular in Israel. The Israelis remember well the difficult defensive war against the father of the current Syrian president, Hafez Assad, and are aware of the claims of official Damascus to the Golan Heights. But the greatest tension in Israel is still caused by the participation in the conflict of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which carries out terrorist attacks on Israeli territory. Everything else, besides Hezbollah, worries the Israelis to a small extent.

From the first day of Russia’s participation in the Syrian war, the Russian-Israeli coordination center began working. In relation to Russia, Israel adheres to friendly neutrality (bilateral relations have reached a new level partly thanks to the obvious enmity between Benjamin Netanyahu and the Barack Obama administration - the Israeli prime minister even pointedly canceled visits to Washington and flew to Moscow for negotiations). Israel never makes any claims to the Russian side due to the fact that Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft sometimes touch Israeli airspace when turning.

The active actions of the Israelis are limited to three points:

• Air strikes on military warehouses in Syria in cases where the weapons located there, according to Israel, are intended for Hezbollah. Despite the fact that Hezbollah is a tactical ally of Bashar al-Assad in the war against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, during Israeli airstrikes all Russian air defense systems immediately “fall asleep” and do not in the least interfere with the Israeli Air Force doing their job. Official Moscow, as a rule, “turns a blind eye” to such incidents, while state Russian media remain silent.
• Israel's principled position - as a state that is constantly under threat of destruction - if at least one stray shell from Syria flies into its territory, the Israeli army immediately hits back, without wasting a minute of time on finding out who is to blame. Very unpleasant situations are repeated: militants of terrorist groups fire at the positions of the Syrian troops, something flies over the Syrian-Israeli border, after which it is the Syrian army that receives a “response” from Israel. Asking the Israelis to “get into the situation” and not do it again is absolutely useless. It is possible to understand them.
• Different parties to the conflict are dragging their wounded in order to quietly throw them into Israeli territory. The Israelis, according to them, basically treat everyone indiscriminately and then deport them back. In fact, of course, Israeli intelligence receives from these wounded important information. There was an interesting case when Israeli Druze somehow found out that another “foundling” was an Islamic State militant, they stopped an ambulance and tore him to pieces (IS is massively exterminating Druze in Syria).

Iran. For Shiite Iran, the territory of Syria has become an arena of battle against the main geopolitical enemy - Sunni Saudi Arabia, as well as against Sunni Qatar. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is acting against Saudi and Qatari groups in Syria. In addition, at the request of Iran, the Lebanese Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah acted on its side in Syria.

Qatar. One of the richest countries on the planet (perhaps the richest per capita). The presence of enormous wealth spurs the ambitions of the ruling Qatari monarchy. Qatar hopes to build a huge global Caliphate and stand at its head. To this end, the Qatari monarchy is pumping huge amounts of money and material into Islamic terrorists around the world. By the way, Qatar is also doing a lot of “work” in the Russian Caucasus. What does it look like? It reminds us of the USSR of the 1920s, which was a very extremist state, in the sense that it hoped to export the revolution to the whole world through the Comintern and even build a one-world socialist state with its capital in Moscow. Specifically in Syria, the Qatari monarchy, don’t be fools, diversified their “investments” by supplying two large groups with money and everything they needed: the Islamic State and Ahrar al-Sham. Moreover, Qatar had enough money to directly or indirectly buy Western politicians so that they would recognize Ahrar al-Sham as a “moderate Syrian democratic opposition” (although all these “oppositionists” are the most notorious thugs). Somewhere simple bribes are involved, in the case of France - multi-billion dollar contracts. Yes, yes, France, which was shaken by terrorist attacks organized by the Islamic State, is actively making friends with those who organized the Islamic State itself. Money doesn't smell. There is no money in the case of Belarus, which, openly and without formally violating any international norms, sells old Soviet weapons to Qatar, which then end up in the hands of IS and Ahrar al-Sham.

• A little conspiracy theory. After Russia began to destroy terrorists in Syria, without making any distinction between “good” and “bad,” outright hysterical cries began from Qatar. It is not surprising - Russian aviation is bombing those into whom Qatar has pumped enormous efforts and money. After that, our Airbus exploded over Sinai. And after this terrorist attack... during falconry in Iraq (with which Russia has established cooperation), several representatives of the Qatari royal family disappear. Moreover, the unknown kidnappers immediately release all the servants and do not make any demands. Soon after this mysterious incident... the Emir of Qatar flies to Moscow, where he unexpectedly begins to pour out compliments towards Russia. And during the visit, Putin personally gives him... a falcon.

Kurds. Firstly, a desperate struggle for their own survival (from the point of view of radical Islamists, the Kurds have no right to life) - it is no coincidence that it is the Kurdish militia that displays the highest moral and volitional qualities on the battlefield. Secondly, the desire for independence - up to the creation of an independent state of Kurdistan, uniting Kurds living in Syria, Turkey and Iraq. True, in fact, the relations between the Kurds from these countries are not always allied.

The Kurds, as a force opposed to the Islamic State, are most supported by the United States, and to a lesser extent by Russia. The Kurds, having common enemies with Bashar Assad, adhere to friendly neutrality towards him (he never touched them, the Kurds lived autonomously in a united Syria). However, the United States is inciting the Kurds as much as possible against official Damascus. Therefore, at the moment when the Kurds nevertheless, at the instigation of the Americans, turned their arms against Bashar al-Assad, Russia did not interfere with the invasion of the Turkish army into the northern regions of Syria, where the Kurds live. Officially, Turkey launched an operation allegedly against the Islamic State, but in reality the main goal of the Turks was to hit the Syrian Kurds and prevent them from uniting with the Turkish Kurds, which would have threatened Turkey with the loss of the south of the country. At the same time, in the south of his own state, President Recep Erdogan is waging a merciless war against his own civilian citizens of Kursk nationality with the full connivance of the world community.

Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are achieving the same goals as the Qataris - a global Caliphate (but led by Riyadh, not Doha, of course). This is their axial paradigm, the promotion of radical Sunni Islam is an integral part of Saudi ideology. Did you think wars over religion and ideology had disappeared somewhere? Nothing of the kind, they are just now being carried out with the help of modern weapons.

By the way, like Qatar, the Saudi monarchy invests a lot of money in our Caucasus (as well as Tatarstan and Bashkiria - with the connivance of local authorities). In Syria, Saudi Arabia is betting, accordingly, not on the rival Islamic State, but on a number of radical groups, the largest of which is Jabhat al-Nusra (the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, also known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, aka “Tahrir al-Sham”, aka “Deish al-Fatah” (the latter of these is a tactical unification of the Saudi “al-Nusra” with the Qatari “Ahrar al-Sham”)). Moreover, through bribery and threats, Saudi Arabia forces Western countries to consider all these terrorist groups as “moderate opposition.” If everything is clear with bribery, then the threats are of this kind - “we will withdraw our money from your economy.” One of the richest states on the planet, Saudi Arabia holds $1 trillion in the US economy, which forces even Americans to take into account the interests of the Saudi monarchy, often to the detriment of their own interests and the interests of Western civilization itself.

There is another reason for Saudi Arabia's participation in this war. Cynical - well, just creepy. The war in Syria on the part of the Saudis is “supervised” by Muhammad bin Salman Al Saudi - crown prince and one of the contenders for the Saudi throne. If he can prove that he " a real man“By overthrowing Assad, then he will receive the crown. If not, then no. For the sake of the crown, he is ready to destroy any number of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians.

Russia. He fights on the side of the government forces of Bashar al-Assad for the following reasons:

1. In the “soft underbelly” Russian Federation Central Asian republics are located former USSR, which are characterized by weak statehood (also aggravated by the physical departure of the old Soviet autocrats), social disorder and the presence of an extremely fertile environment for radical Islam. The news is very alarming: already now what we call “international terrorism” is opening more and more branches in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (I will not undertake to judge Turkmenistan without verified information). The potential beginning of the “Central Asian Spring” (following the example of the “Arab Spring”) threatens Russia with a national catastrophe: then the region to the south of our country will turn into one huge base of Islamic terrorists (following the example of Libya), millions of refugees from Central Asia will flood the territory of the Russian Federation. Among them, of course, will be many thousands of Islamic militants who will drown our country in a sea of ​​blood. Separating from the Central Asian republics with a high wall of several thousand kilometers and placing a border guard on it every five meters is not possible. What comes next is worse: the described development of events will provoke explosive radicalization of the Muslim population of such Russian regions as Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Despite the fact that the latent radicalization of the Tatars and Bashkirs has been going on for a long time: with the connivance of the locals mired in corruption Russian authorities Extensive work in this field is carried out by Saudi, Qatari and Turkish emissaries who legally come to Russia under the guise of religious preachers (one of the leading experts on Wahhabism, Rais Suleymanov, is sounding the alarm, for which the Tatarstan authorities are among the best Russian traditions- they tried to imprison him as a “slanderer”). One way or another, on the verge of a non-illusory catastrophe, the Russian Federation is striving to defeat the forces of “international terrorism” on the territory of Syria, so that the Syrian soil, like the Libyan one, does not become one large support base for Islamic militants. Otherwise, the flame of jihad will very quickly spread to Central Asia, and then to Russia.

2. In Syria, thousands of citizens from countries are fighting on the side of the Islamic State, the Syrian branches of al-Qaeda (Jabhat al-Nusra, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, Jaysh al-Fatah) and other Islamic terrorist organizations CIS (including immigrants from Muslim regions of Russia). This entire contingent in Syria will not last forever - their task is to gain real combat experience and return to ignite a “holy war” at home (a standard and time-tested practice). Moreover, when there was a visa-free regime between Russia and Turkey, it was de facto valid for terrorists. The task of the Russian Federation is to force all these militants to remain on Syrian territory in the form of charred corpses and demoralized deserters. At the same time, using their example to discourage others from the idea of ​​going to Syria to fight for terrorists.

3. Without help Russian army Bashar al-Assad will face complete defeat, and all his fellow Alawites will simply be slaughtered by militants in the literal sense of the word (as the Yezidis, Shiites, Christians and other ethno-confessional groups of the Syrian population are already being slaughtered). Therefore, Assad has no choice but to agree to the indefinite deployment of the Russian military base at the Khmeimim airfield. We did not have such a base on Syrian territory even during the Soviet era (a small logistics support point in the port of Tartus cannot be called a base).

5. For Russia, the war in Syria costs money that is comparable to the cost of military exercises, which had to be carried out in any case. At the same time: at slightly higher costs, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation gain much more experience and the opportunity to “test” new weapons in real combat conditions (and not in their imitation). It is interesting that in Syria there is a very rapid rotation of personnel of the Russian army - the military department is striving to “drive” as many officers as possible through the Syrian conflict before the end of the war, so that they all receive relevant experience.

6. It sounds more like a curiosity, but nevertheless. The warehouses of the Russian army are filled with aerial bombs that are expiring. Dropping them on the heads of terrorists is much cheaper than disposing of them.

The USA and its European NATO satellites. They are indeed fighting against the Islamic State, but not in Syria, but in Iraq. Nominally, they are also participating in the “anti-terrorist coalition” on Syrian territory, and are de facto carrying out the “order” against Assad.

1. Saudi Arabia and Qatar absolutely need to overthrow the secular regime of Bashar al-Assad and divide Syria between their Islamist militants. United States of America in in this case fulfill their allied obligations towards the two richest monarchies in the world - Saudi and Qatar - in exchange for colossal investments in their economy. In addition, Saudi Arabia holds $1 trillion in the US economy, which has a tangible impact on the US economy. foreign policy. As a result, the United States instructs and supplies thousands of tons of military supplies to the following groups:

Jaysh al-Islam. De facto it is in highest degree fanatical pro-Saudi Wahhabis, however, according to the United States and American satellites, this is a “moderate democratic opposition” that can be an adequate replacement for Bashar al-Assad. The Russian resolution recognizing Jaysh al-Islam as a terrorist organization has been blocked at the UN by the United States and other Western states.

"Nuriddin al-Zinki." The group became famous for cutting off the head of a child and using homemade chemical weapons, including against civilians.

"Ahrar al-Sham". Qatari thugs (in the truest sense of the word). The Russian resolution recognizing Ahrar al-Sham as a terrorist organization has been blocked at the UN by the United States and other Western states.

Drum roll... Al-Qaeda. To the greatest extent, the United States helps, both on the military and diplomatic fronts, exactly the same Saudi Al-Qaeda, which they themselves staged September 11th. Firstly, American supplies are made to the supposedly “moderate democratic opposition” organization Jaysh al-Fatah. At the same time, Jaysh al-Fatah is nothing more than a tactical association of Ahrar al-Sham and the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda called Jabhat al-Nusra. Secondly, assistance goes to the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham organization. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham is simply a part of Jabhat al-Nusra, which changed its name so as not to formally be on the Western list of terrorist organizations. Thirdly, for a long time the United States armed the so-called “Free Syrian Army” (a general name for a mass of small groups that operated under the wing of al-Qaeda, but officially positioned themselves as “moderate democrats”). True, now the Free Syrian Army has completely dissolved into Jabhat al-Nusra.

In addition, on September 17, 2016, the air forces of the United States and its satellites carried out an airstrike against the positions of Bashar al-Assad’s troops near Deir ez-Zor, as a result of which a gap was punched in the Syrian defense for the Islamic State’s offensive. But literally on the eve of this event, Lavrov and Kerry had just signed an agreement according to which the “Western coalition” would not attack Assad’s army.

2. The American establishment contains a very large number of pro-Saudi and pro-Tarri lobbyists who are working off the “investments” for their personal pockets. This is already reaching unprecedented cases: for the first time in history, the United States vetoed a resolution condemning the shelling of the embassy - we are talking about the Russian mission in Damascus, which was shelled by terrorists.

3. Since the time of Condoleezza Rice, there have been many honest idiots in the US leadership who really believe in the possibility of forced democratization of the Middle East. Quite sincerely, these people believe that simply overthrowing the local dictator is enough for democracy to be immediately established in a given country. Being hostages of their own ideology, they cannot realize that each state goes through its own stages of development, and at the stage of a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional eastern clan society, democracy simply does not work. Even the most disgusting dictator copes much better with the functions of an arbiter in these extremely delicate systems of internal relations, protecting the country from a “war of all against all.” Iraq and Libya are eloquent examples of this. By the way, among all the Middle Eastern dictators, Bashar Assad is the most herbivorous. A fairly intelligent ophthalmologist, under whom the people could lead a completely European lifestyle. Balance of power between all ethnic and religious groups. No one laid a finger on either the Shiites, or the numerous Christians, or any other minorities. There are girls in Syria, otherwise at will, not only did they not wear headscarves, but they could even quite calmly go to the beach in a swimsuit - they were not at all thrown stones for this. Young people of both sexes calmly went to discos and nightclubs; there was no ban on alcohol. If democratization starts with anyone, it would be with the main ally of the United States, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a brutal Sharia dictatorship in which a woman cannot go outside without being accompanied by her brother, father or husband. Where women are tried and sentenced to brutal corporal punishment for being raped. Where gays are publicly beheaded. Where bloggers are sentenced to hanging and even crucifixion. Where recently firefighters threw schoolgirls back into the fire - because they ran out of a burning school in inappropriate clothing. In the Emirate of Qatar, morals, by the way, are little better.

Where there is war, there are losses. American instructors training terrorists come under Russian airstrikes. So far, information about four deaths has been announced. At the same time, Russian aviation is being fired upon from the ground American weapons(including the latest American anti-tank weapons missile systems TOW, which in their new modification can effectively fight helicopters). On September 24, a meeting was held in Riyadh at which the American side, in consultations with the Gulf countries, pledged to transfer 30 man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems to terrorists. Saudi Arabia demanded more, but the American CIA opposed it - it remembers well how in Afghanistan they had to buy Stingers from the Taliban for crazy money, which the CIA officers themselves distributed to them to fight against Soviet aviation.

The most egregious case occurred on August 1, 2016, when Jaysh al-Fatah militants (remember: this is the American-armed alliance of Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Qaeda) and Ahrar al-Sham) shot down a Russian Mi-8 transport helicopter with negotiators on board.

Türkiye. We have already touched on the Kurdish issue above, now it is the main one. In the recent past, Turkey supplied the Islamic State with weapons and ammunition (the so-called “humanitarian convoys”), sent its army officers and still provides its resorts for treatment and recreation to the militants - all this is an open secret. And it’s no secret that the overwhelming majority of volunteers join IS through Turkey. And the head of the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT), Hakan Fidan, generally openly stated that a permanent representative office of the Islamic State should be opened in Ankara. However, this does not prevent Turkey from being a member of the “anti-terrorist coalition” led by the United States (which, you will laugh, also includes Qatar and Saudi Arabia) for cover purposes (or rather, to “keep up appearances”).

Why does Turkey need the Islamic State? Three main reasons. Reason one. The current President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is guided by an ideology called “We are the new Ottomans.” He seriously dreams of restoration Ottoman Empire, thinks of himself as a sultan - a new Suleiman the Magnificent, who will gather the long-lost lands. For Recep Erdogan, the Islamic State, as well as the Turkoman militant groups, are a tool with which he intended to annex northern Syria. It must be said that he almost succeeded, but Russian intervention confused all the cards for the newly-minted Sultan.

Reason two. Erdogan's family had personal business for the resale of oil to the Islamic State. IS sent thousands of fuel tankers towards Turkey (the columns, judging by the video recordings, stretched for kilometers - it was a kind of “moving oil pipeline”). The Erdogan family bought oil from the Islamic State at a bargain price and sold it for much more. It was at that moment when Russian aviation began to iron the columns of fuel tankers that Erdogan “freaked out” to such an extent that he ordered our bomber to be shot down. Moreover, declaring that this and others Russian planes And aircrafts, violated Turkish airspace, Recep Erdogan was not even too cunning - after all, from his point of view, the north of Syria has already become part of Turkey. By the way, our pilots were finished off the ground by Turkoman militants, whose “guardianship” was the justification for Turkey’s annexation of the northern part of Syria, where the Turkomans live.

The situation in Syria today clearly shows us what could happen to our country in the absence of a nuclear shield. It is no longer a secret to anyone that the “Syrian opposition” is a fact of thugs-rapists, militants from Al-Qaeda and Western special forces. As in Libya, these armed gangs act together to “lead the country to freedom and democracy.” Of course, all these big words are empty. There is a fierce struggle for power.

The information war launched against Syria with the help of the same “world” media, after a series of failures of the Western propaganda machine in Libya, shows us how biased TV channels and other sources of information form a negative image of the legitimate government in the eyes of European and American citizens.

How to understand where is the truth and where is the lie? Can the BBC, CNN or Al Jazeera deceive people around the world to serve the geopolitical interests of their patrons, or are they actually acting objectively and impartially, preaching the ideals of “freedom and democracy”?

Another litmus test for us was the voice of the Russian diaspora in Syria. The question of who to really believe - radical militants or our compatriots who, by the will of fate, live in Damascus - is not even worth it.

Among the “Syrian opposition” there are not only militants and terrorists, but also, as it turned out, talking heads. Of course, receiving funding and weapons from the West, with every fiber of their soul, if any, they hate Russia, which supports Bashar al-Assad in this difficult struggle.

Pay attention to his rhetoric. Doesn't remind you of anything?

The so-called “world community,” with the help of handy media, launched another campaign to harass the Assad government, in absentia attributing all these victims to his account.

Although even UN representatives are sure that everything is far from so simple:

The vast majority of those killed in Syria city ​​of Hula became victims of executions carried out militants, the agency reports on Tuesday, May 29 AFP. As a result of artillery and tank attacks government shelling killed less 20 out of 108 people, a spokesman said in Geneva UN Human Rights Council Rupert Colville.

Another typical example of an information war.

But let's return to the Russian diaspora. I had the opportunity to correspond with Natalya, who told us how things really are in Syria:

And today Natalya asks everyone to join the Russian diaspora in Syria and sign the online petition:

Dear friends of Syria!
In brotherly Syria, signatures are being collected for this letter.
It started in Russia too.
If you would like to sign it, please provide your first and last name.

To the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
To the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia S.V. Lavrov

Dear Sergey Viktorovich!
We, the Russian people who are in Syria, turn to you with a request for protection.
What is happening around Syria now is a brutal information war that threatens to develop into a real one.
What happened in the Syrian village of Hula is nothing more than a carefully planned provocation designed to bring new sanctions on Syria, including foreign intervention.

You say: both sides are to blame for what happened. But that's not true. The tragedy that took place in the village of Hula is not the fault of the Syrian army.

The village of Khula, according to the terms of the truce, was under the control of the armed opposition, and there was no army there. There were five Syrian army checkpoints around the village. And at about 2 p.m., these checkpoints were attacked by armed opposition fighters so that Syrian soldiers could not come to the aid of the residents of Hula and were forced to hold the line. The warriors fought steadfastly, but the forces were unequal, and they were captured and brutally tortured by the militants.

At this time, terrorists carried out a massacre and killed dozens of people in Houla. All those killed were civilians, men, women and children, and belonged to three large Syrian families. These families were completely slaughtered.

If we assume that these families were killed during shelling, then how can shelling kill so selectively?

We believe that these were civilians who were loyal to the legitimate Syrian government.

All the dead had either bullet wounds or stab wounds. What kind of artillery shelling, what kind of tank shelling can we talk about?

Understand that it is pointless to try to put pressure on the Syrian authorities to carry out Kofi Annan's plan. Because the Syrian authorities and personally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are doing everything to fulfill this plan. And we, living in Syria, confirm this.

And the armed opposition is doing everything to thwart Kofi Annan’s plan. Thus, since the announcement of the truce, opposition gangs have committed more than three thousand crimes.

The Syrian army, carrying out Kofi Ananna's plan, found itself constrained in its actions and cannot always give an adequate response to terrorists and militants.
Please note that not a single atrocity of the armed opposition was condemned by the West. The West has never sympathized with the victims of these militant crimes. No one in the West demanded the convening of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council when on May 10 a terrible terrorist attack was committed in Damascus, in which more than 60 people were killed, including children.

But just because of the slander about the alleged “involvement of the Syrian army” in the killings in Houla, a meeting of the UN Security Council is urgently convened, at the request of England and France. The Syrian army and the country's leadership are declared to be the “culprits” of the incident, although no investigation has yet taken place.
We support your demand for a thorough investigation into the Houla tragedy.

WE, like all people of good will, demands the punishment of criminals and those who stand behind them, who arm them and give orders for new attacks and terrorist attacks. These are the forces that are trying to thwart Kofi Annan's plan
The people of Syria have great hope for Great Russia. That Russia will not allow the cruel NATO scenarios that led to the death of Yugoslavia and the Libyan Jamahiriya to be repeated in Syria.

We call on the Russian leadership to seek an investigation into the crimes committed in the village of Hula, not to join the chorus of Western voices directed against the Syrian Republic and its leadership, but to provide the Syrian people and their legal representatives with all possible support in the fight against terrorist groups that have infiltrated Syrian soil, to protect Syria from Western sanctions.

We ask you to take all measures to, together with other peace-loving countries, stop the escalation of NATO military preparations against the Syrian Republic, which could lead to disaster and the death of innocent people.

Russian people, as if they were in Syria,
so do those who sympathize with the people of the fraternal country

I ask everyone who is not indifferent to what is happening in Syria to follow the above link and leave their signature.