SYRIA - Russia to send marines to naval base #WorWat...http://fb.me/12DBfMa6A
Syria: Russia to send marines to naval base
Russia confirmed that it was preparing to send an elite unit of marines to its naval base in Syria on Monday, sharply raising the stakes in its confrontation with the West over the future of the Assad regime.
8:28PM BST 18 Jun 2012
It was apparently ordered after the Kremlin came to conclusion that Western powers were preparing to circumvent the United Nations Security Council – where Russia holds a veto – by unilaterally authorising Nato military action in Syria. The source said that Russia had "completely misunderstood" Western intentions.
Classified US satellite images last week indicated that loading work had begun on two amphibious landing vessels, the Nikolai Filchenkov and the Caesar Kunikov, at the Crimean naval base of Sebastopol.
After initially remaining silent on the subject, a senior naval commander yesterday confirmed that both ships would shortly be heading to the Russian base at the Syrian port of Tartus, the Interfax news agency reported.
The officer said that they would carry marines charged with protecting the security of Russian citizens and evacuating a part of the base, marking the first time Moscow has sent troops to Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began more than 15 months ago.
If fully loaded, the two vessels could carry as many as 600 troops and 24 tanks.
Russia's Nezavisimaya Gazeta, citing anonymous military sources, suggested that the soldiers would be drawn from the elite Pskov airborne brigades and special forces units stationed in Chechnya.
The move comes amid heightened international tension over Syria, with the United States, Britain and France all pressing Russia to accept Mr Assad's departure as part of a new peace plan. Moscow has insisted that it will not tolerate regime change enforced by outside powers.
Russia was particularly unnerved after William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, and other Western officials compared the slaughter in Syria to the civil war in Bosnia in the 1990s, the Western defence official said.
They believed the comparisons amounted to a coded signal that the West was preparing to authorise a Nato mission to Syria similar to the peacekeeping operation mounted in Bosnia and later in Kosovo.
Both missions angered nationalists in Russia, a long-standing ally of Serbia, and is said to have contributed to President Vladimir Putin's deep distrust of the West. Recent experience in Libya, however, suggests that any Nato action without the blessing of the UN is unlikely – even if the West were contemplating it.
But the deployment also signalled that Russia was hedging its bets, according to the diplomat.
"The purpose is threefold," he said. "First, they want to send a signal to the West about military intervention. Second, they want to demonstrate support for Assad.
"But they are also preparing for the worst and realise that the worsening situation may leave them no choice but to evacuate their nationals as a last resort. If that happens, it is game over for the Russians.
"They project strength, but know their position in Syria is actually a weak one. It may be this is a last throw of the dice."
Syria has long been Moscow's most important Arab ally, both as a major importer of its arms and as the providers of Russia's only warm-water naval base outside the former Soviet Union.
Before the uprising began, Russia had hoped to expand its naval presence in Syria in order to give its ailing navy the opportunity of challenging the dominance of the US Fifth Fleet in the Mediterranean.
The planned deployment is the latest in a series of warnings to the West against military involvement in Syria. Last Friday, Russia confirmed that it was shipping advance defensive missile systems to Syria that could be used to shoot down aircraft and sink ships.
"I would like to say these mechanisms are really a good means of defence, a reliable defence against attacks from the air or sea," Anatoly Isaykin, director of the state arms company Rosoboronexport, said.
"This is not a threat, but whoever is planning an attack should think about this."
