Clearly spelt out from the beginning

The big media fuss about the Russian pullout of Syria was neither justified nor objective.

President Vladimir Putin had made it explicitly clear that the target of the military intervention was just to bolster the regime of Bashar Assad and to secure main interests for his country.

On October 11, 2015, he declared the following in an interview with Vladimir Soloviev on the TV channel Russia 1: “Our objective is to stabilise the legitimate authority and create conditions for a political compromise.”

There was no mention of total defeat of Daesh, as many analysts assumed.

About 5,000 to 7,000 Russian and Chechen Muslims are using their former guerrilla warfare experience to fight in Syria and Iraq for Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.

On March 14, 2016, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu admitted that nearly 2,000 terrorists that originated from Russia had been killed, including 17 field commanders.

The military task force was limited to a specific mission as the Russian air force included only 12 SU-24M, 12 SU-25SM, six SU-34 and four SU-30SM, which is not a big force, and they were not backed by helicopters.

Such factors explain why Putin considered creating a new air base in Humeimeen, with a defence system of Russian missiles S400, as the best guarantee for securing his country’s interests in the region and to facilitate, when necessary, a comeback from the Caspian Sea within one hour.

The Tartus strategic naval base is completely under the command of Russian officers who coordinate with Moscova frigate armed with nuclear weapons.

These achievements explain why Putin, while evaluating the performance of the task force, said: “I consider the objectives that have been set for the defence ministry to be generally accomplished.”

The timing of the pullout sent a message to the Syrians that the whole purpose was to create an environment conducive to a political solution, which the Geneva III talks had heralded.

But that abysmal sort of a political solution is reflected in the Kurds controlling the northern corridor of Azzaz to Qamishli and Kobani, while Daesh is buttressed in the eastern parts of Syria, and the coastal towns on the Mediterranean have been ethnically cleansed to be exclusively populated by Alawites.

With 11 million Syrians displaced from their villages and towns, and 250,000 killed during the last five years, it is legitimate to ask, where Damascus is going. 

Is it to more carnage or to more self-destruction?