It is not clear what the arrangement between Moscow and Ankara is regarding Russia’s withdrawal and whether or not it is even worth the paper that it was written on. Specifically, did Erdogan grant concessions to Putin to allow him to withdraw Russian soldiers and assets from their bases in Syria unmolested? We have reason to believe some evacuations of Russian bases have started, but otherwise people are commenting on this without any knowledge of what the situation is.
Russia has asked Turkey for support to ensure the safe withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria, Russian sources told Turkish media.
Meanwhile, Syrian revolutionaries have taken control of the city of Jebla, about 6 km from the Russian Khmeimim airbase.
And, will Erdogan honor these concessions if they even exist?
We have some disturbing news coming out of Syria being reported on Western Twitter and on Russian Telegram. A big channel that works with the Kremlin, but sometimes allows itself to criticize the MoD (Rybar), has confirmed that there are marooned Russian troops in Syria. Here:
🇷🇺🇸🇾 Unfortunately, as of 7 PM, we can make some disheartening conclusions: Russia's military presence in the Middle East region is hanging by a thread.
▪️Seeing the lack of activity by the Russian grouping of forces in Syria, Kurdish formations have begun blocking certain Russian military facilities in Deir ez-Zor.
▪️Jebla is under the control of armed formations. The Hmeimim base is cut off.
▪️Russian warships have been withdrawn from the port of Tartus to the roadstead to reduce the threat from rogue bandit formations that have decided to shell them.
▪️Positions at the oil refinery in the Homs desert are also blocked.
📍We have no right to speak about the plans of the Russian military leadership: what was decided in the high offices is absolutely irrelevant on the ground.
Simply because on the ground, there was no initiative. The expectation of instructions from Moscow on Sunday, the lack of understanding that it was necessary to act outside the system, to make an attempt for another dash to Pristina or to rush to defend South Ossetia did not materialize.
In their time, these were the very events that went down in history and glorified Russia precisely because the people on the ground acted on their own initiative, taking on much more than the instructions or orders that no one gave.
This time, everything was done correctly in a systemic way. Inertly and indifferently, in other words.
#Russia #Syria
Comparisons to Afghanistan being made as well. Here:
Do you remember how the propagandists laughed at the Americans fleeing Afghanistan? It seems that the predictions (https://t.me/KvachkovV/2680) that friend Erdogan would let friend Vladimir save face and calmly withdraw equipment and our soldiers who were surrounded turned out to be wrong. The worst thing that the professionals warned about may happen in the very near future or is already happening right now...
❗One of the units of the Russian Armed Forces is completely surrounded in Syria and has no way to break through to the main forces in Latakia, reports (https://t.me/razvedosaa/11878) military blogger Alexander Arutyunov.
“We have taken up a circular defense. We are waiting. They are shooting all around, but it is not clear where. It seems that they are just happy ...”, he quotes the words of the surrounded soldiers.
According to him, “there is no military solution to this problem, but there is still a political one.”
Why did Putin not at least evacuate his men before giving up on Assad? Honestly, it seems like he goes out of his way to ensure that Russians are killed and humiliated at every single turn.
Worse, more and more, it is looking like Putin slid the knife into Assad’s back as well.
This is because Putin and his government may have switched their support to the FSA before the Turkish SMO even began. Speculation, I know, but we will investigate more fully as more information comes to light.
Meanwhile, right after the fall of Damascus, we had the news that the embassy in St. Petersburg already changed the Syrian Ba’athist flag to the Free Syrian Army one. Did they keep one with them just in case? Or did Putin’s people put it up?
It is unclear how the FSA was able to send a diplomat team to St. Petersburg so quickly. Or why it would be tolerated by a Russia that is/was ostensibly on Assad’s side.
Meanwhile, Russian media has stopped calling the FSA terrorists or “rebels” and instead now refers to them as “armed opposition groups” signaling Moscow’s support for the change in power. Here:
RIA Novosti, TASS, Russia Today and other state media have changed their methodology. The new government in Syria has stopped being called “terrorists” and is now being called “armed opposition.” — AteoBreaking editorial team is closely following the events
This should all make sense if you read my previous article in which I showed that Putin supported the FSA and exerted military pressure on Assad to recognize them, pay them money, and give them political concessions. Moscow even cooperated with the FSA militarily and Putin wanted Assad to step down after his term was up back in 2016 and hand over power to the FSA. While there is no smoking gun proving that Putin sided with the FSA directly to topple Assad yet, there is plenty of circumstantial evidence piling up. Either way, now that the deed is done, Putin is pivoting to the FSA. Also, it looks like the Turkish groups are about to get into a turf war with the Kurds and the FSB + legacy SAA for what is left of Syria.
Chances are, Putin simple refused to support Assad and betrayed Syria that way. (Tier 2 betrayal).
Remember: Putin betrayed Yanukovich in Ukraine in a similar fashion, threatening consequences if he clamped down on the Maidan protestors, and demanding that Yanukovich recognize the Euromaidan government. Putin also refused to support any efforts to retreat to the base of political support in Donbass, rally support there and contest the coup. Moscow rushed to recognize the new Euromaidan government in Kiev as legitimate just like they’re doing now with this new FSA government in Syria. This is because they helped them come to power by refusing to support Yanukovich, who had counted on support from Moscow and refusing to support Assad, who also counted on support from Moscow.
Assad: Putin really did a good job helping us out! Yanukovich: Geostrategic genius!
In his early career, Putin also betrayed Milosovic in similar fashion, promising to intercede on his behalf and to put in a good word with his friends in Washington if Milosevic complied and refused to fight back against the NATO intervention in Kosovo and the bombing of Serbia. That is, Yeltsin did all that and Putin delivered on the regime change later. We have the phone calls where he plotted it with Washington.
Most recently, Putin betrayed the Armenian cause by refusing to do anything about the Azerbaijani offensive, even though Russian peacekeepers were targeted and killed by Azeri drones.
With Armenia too, Pashinyan was a kind of “Assad” if you will — a Western asset put into power to dismember Armenia and bring them into compliance with the NWO’s plans in the region, which involve assembling a Turkic, Islamic noose around Russia’s south. Putin, for his part, encourages open border migration with these countries and arrests anyone who speaks out against the war being waged against ethnic Russians by their own and hostile neighboring governments in the form of mass migration, drug trafficking, human trafficking, racketeering and Islamic terrorism within Russia.
There are rumors that Putin’s treachery goes deeper than just refusing to back up Assad though.
Mainly, there are rumors that Putin left behind Russian weapons for the rebels to pick up, like he did when retreating from Kiev, or retreating from Kharkov or when retreating from Armenia. Or like how the Americans left behind their gear for the Taliban to pick up. Or for ISIS to do the same in northern Iraq before that. These plays happen more often than people would be comfortable even considering.
The armed opposition, thanks to Pypa [pejorative for putin used by nationalists], already has brand new AK-12s and uniforms from abandoned arsenals. So that those mobilized from the LPR and DPR don't get upset about the Mosin rifles and iron helmets, they'll make a heroic TV series about them later. Good luck!
And here:
NOTE: this system was never used to protect Syria from Israeli or Turkish bombing, so maybe it was sent there to be handed off to Turkey but with plausible deniability?
We don’t have proof of this yet. This is just speculation so far and I admit that. But I know what my money is on. So, let’s see what happens in the coming days and count down the time until I and the doomer position regarding Putin is proven right, yet again.
…
Dr. Livsci comments:
I disdain the people who still to this day think there is a real "axis of resistance" more than people like Ritter and Escobar who fleece those stupid people. To be clear I have no doubt that Russias initial intervention in Syria really pissed off Zog West. When it initially happened I even thought that maybe Russia was seriously just doing the right thing and acting in Russias best interest. So sure I was fooled once.
But now its undeniable that Russia just used Syria as a bargaining chip to win concessions in an inner globohomo mafia feud. Just like it was using Ukraine. Furthermore Putin is very, very bad at this game of chicken and his trying to play in the big leagues when his abilities are little league level at best might end up destroying Russia.
Speaking of, Ritter is claiming that there was no conspiracy of betrayal, but that things got a little bit too out of control and that Assad and Putin were simply unlucky. Pepe is claiming the opposite — that Putin cut a clever deal:
These propagandists need to get their narrative straight — how are people supposed to know what Putin wants them to believe?
I’ll leave you with a rumor that is being shared by the group of well-placed Israeli leakers in the Kremlin who I reference on occasion, just to see what Russia’s Permanent Opposition is saying. This is what they wrote regarding Assad:
VChK-OGPU source on the fate of Bashar al-Assad:
The "sentence" of the regime of Bashar al-Assad was de facto written on November 29 in Moscow following his unsuccessful visit to the Kremlin. Returning to Damascus on November 30, Assad faced wholesale betrayal from his security forces, who regarded the lack of support from Moscow as a compromise already decided for the Kremlin within the framework of some agreements behind Damascus's back. A significant mistake of Bashar al-Assad himself was the decision to visit Moscow, where he arrived on November 27, together with all members of his family. The news of the presence of the Assad family in Moscow at the time of the beginning of military actions in the north of the country actually became proof of the fragility of the regime, which played a significant role in the moral and psychological superiority of the militants over the forces of the Assad government. The admission of such a mistake raises questions about the competence of Russian advisers to the Bashar al-Assad regime and the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who did not prevent the obviously disastrous visit and the early flight of the family. At the moment, Assad's move to Moscow for permanent residence is an undesirable development for many Russian officials who have failed to fulfill their task of supporting the regime, which makes the scenario with the death of the former Syrian leader in the skies over Syria the most acceptable for everyone."
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Assad has fled to Moscow.
…
Meanwhile, Iran is saying that the opposite is true. Here:
The Iranians published a press release through their state news agency, where they justified why this happened in Syria. They stated that Assad himself refused Iran's help and intervention in the military actions and constantly referred to some agreements between him and other Arab states, the West and Turkey. In addition, Iran admitted that Assad enjoyed extremely low support in society, and the opposition was large. Hence.
So, the leakers are saying that Assad was turned on because he relied too much for support on Moscow and Tehran and Tehran is claiming that Assad refused their support. Moscow is making similar claims, claiming that Assad went behind their backs. I’m sure Assad did just that, but he only did it when it became clear that he was being cut by Moscow, as far as I can tell.
The ZAnon propagandists, like Mercouris, are claiming that Assad betrayed Moscow and suffered for his own folly. This is the new propaganda line, apparently. Both Tehran and Moscow want to blame Assad for everything and to absolve themselves of their betrayal. Assad is no angel himself, but this story makes no sense and I believe that the Israeli leakers’ version is closer to the truth.
I am sure that we will have more info on this in the coming days and weeks.
…
Stalkers, please share my work.
The loss of Syria might be the thin edge in the wedge to get people to wake up from the propaganda about the Axis of Resistance or BRICS Antifa Values Multipolarity. These are “Operation Trust” type info-ops to get people to simply “trust the plan” and to justify war against these countries as well. Propagandists play up their threat to Washington ostensibly to portray them in a flattering light even though they are actually puppet governments of Washington with puppet leaders who have overstayed their welcome and are being cycled out by Washington.
I have had a flood of new readers since yesterday.
A few days ago I explained the largest conceptual hurdle that I faced in trying to get my core thesis about the Kremlin across to a skeptical audience. Here:
I have been fighting a war against these propagandists for many years now and the pay for the work has been … meager, to say the least. If you’ve ever donated to the Duran or MoB or Ritter or Macgregor or Hinkle or any of these clowns … now is the time to make amends.
If you do, you will be able to comment and share your own story about how you realized that you were being led by the nose by these grifters.
Do you know why I have paid comments only turned on? Because these psychos would raid and spam my comments sections. It was incessant. The number of hate emails I get too is also amusing. I have been banned from many “anti-globalist” or “alternative” forums simply for criticizing Putin from a patriotic, pro-Russian perspective. Chances are, you’ve experienced the same sort of manic responses which is why you ended up here.
As for comparisons with the U$@ withdrawal from Afghanistan, this fiasco is far & away worse, especially with the abandonment of remnant Russian military units during their pell mell retreatin the midst of a colossal rout!
"There are people in Russia who do have some amount of power, maybe a lot more than is thought, and now they have a few things to think about:
Russia can’t project force using boots on the ground beyond its national borders. They’re in a three-year-long stalemate in Ukraine, in which their largest advance has been 25 miles past the 2022 borders - and they still don’t control all of the oblasts they’ve claimed as Russian. They don’t control the airspace over Crimea, and they don’t control the Black Sea airspace or open water, effectively their Black Sea Fleet is bottled up in Novorossisk. Novorossiya may well revert back to Ukraine, and sooner rather than later.
Russia just lost its major sea and air base in Syria, which means they can no longer project force in the Mediterranean, or in the Red Sea, or in the Arabian Sea, or in the Indian Ocean, or in Africa. It’s a long way from Murmansk to those places, especially in winter. It’s an even longer way from Vladivostok. They need to move troops and logistics, and that’s going to be really hard and really expensive from here on out.
Unless Russia just didn’t have the troop strength and materiel to defend its ally in Syria - or at least its bases, sea and air - its failure to do so is inexplicable… so my conclusion is that they’ve significantly weakened their military forces and run through sufficient weapons, ammo, and materiel in their Ukranian misadventure so as to make it impossible to project sufficient force for an effective intervention to save those vital bases.
There are other parties who would probably take great interest in the fact of Putin’s failure to protect Russia’s vital national security interests in Syria - namely, the Chinese, who may have it on their mind to do a bit of intervention on their own, in Russia’s Far East and offshore islands, with all of those fossil fuel and mineral resources present. They tried it once in 1969, and got booted out by the Red Army. The Russian Army of today is a pale shadow of what the Red Army once was. My bet is that the Chinese will make a try pretty quick, before the Russian Army can recover - and the Russian government will be no longer able to do much of anything about it, especially if done quickly - perhaps by airborne invasion - and it becomes a fait accompli - and the Chinese already have 1.5 million of their nationals on the ground." https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/syria-and-the-end-of-the-putin-regime
And of course I link back to this piece, here - good work!
As for comparisons with the U$@ withdrawal from Afghanistan, this fiasco is far & away worse, especially with the abandonment of remnant Russian military units during their pell mell retreatin the midst of a colossal rout!
"There are people in Russia who do have some amount of power, maybe a lot more than is thought, and now they have a few things to think about:
Russia can’t project force using boots on the ground beyond its national borders. They’re in a three-year-long stalemate in Ukraine, in which their largest advance has been 25 miles past the 2022 borders - and they still don’t control all of the oblasts they’ve claimed as Russian. They don’t control the airspace over Crimea, and they don’t control the Black Sea airspace or open water, effectively their Black Sea Fleet is bottled up in Novorossisk. Novorossiya may well revert back to Ukraine, and sooner rather than later.
Russia just lost its major sea and air base in Syria, which means they can no longer project force in the Mediterranean, or in the Red Sea, or in the Arabian Sea, or in the Indian Ocean, or in Africa. It’s a long way from Murmansk to those places, especially in winter. It’s an even longer way from Vladivostok. They need to move troops and logistics, and that’s going to be really hard and really expensive from here on out.
Unless Russia just didn’t have the troop strength and materiel to defend its ally in Syria - or at least its bases, sea and air - its failure to do so is inexplicable… so my conclusion is that they’ve significantly weakened their military forces and run through sufficient weapons, ammo, and materiel in their Ukranian misadventure so as to make it impossible to project sufficient force for an effective intervention to save those vital bases.
There are other parties who would probably take great interest in the fact of Putin’s failure to protect Russia’s vital national security interests in Syria - namely, the Chinese, who may have it on their mind to do a bit of intervention on their own, in Russia’s Far East and offshore islands, with all of those fossil fuel and mineral resources present. They tried it once in 1969, and got booted out by the Red Army. The Russian Army of today is a pale shadow of what the Red Army once was. My bet is that the Chinese will make a try pretty quick, before the Russian Army can recover - and the Russian government will be no longer able to do much of anything about it, especially if done quickly - perhaps by airborne invasion - and it becomes a fait accompli - and the Chinese already have 1.5 million of their nationals on the ground." https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/syria-and-the-end-of-the-putin-regime
And of course I link back to this piece, here - good work!