MOSCOW: The first Russian official delegation to visit Syria since the toppling of long-term Moscow ally Bashar al-Assad has arrived in Damascus, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday (Jan 28).
The visit comes with Moscow keen to secure the fate of two military bases there and after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Moscow had suffered a strategic “defeat” in the Middle East following the fall of Assad.
The Russian delegation due to meet the new leadership of the war-ravaged country included deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who is also Putin’s special envoy on the Middle East and Africa, as well as Alexander Lavrentyev, the president’s special envoy on Syria, the RIA Novosti agency reported.
It said it was “the first visit by Russian officials to Damascus” since Assad fled in December in the face of a lightning rebel advance across the country.
Moscow was one of Assad’s key backers, intervening in Syria’s civil war in 2015 in his favour.
He and his family fled to Russia after his ouster by Turkish-backed rebels formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Russia is now seeking to secure the fate of its naval base in Tartus and its air base at Khmeimim — both on Syria’s Mediterranean coast and Moscow’s only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union — with the new Syrian authorities.
A report by RT Arabic, a Russian state-controlled channel, said the delegation is set to meet Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and other officials.
Russia’s Bogdanov was a diplomat in Syria in the 1980s and 1990s and speaks Arabic, according to the foreign ministry website. Lavrentyev took part in previous negotiations with Assad.
Sharaa leads an Islamist group – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – that is banned in Russia as a “terrorist” organisation.
The organisation is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch but has more recently adopted a more moderate tone.
RT Arabic reported that Bogdanov described the visit as aimed at strengthening historic ties based on shared interests, and underlined Russia’s hopes for Syrian unity and independence.
