A better Russian delegation arrived in Damascus on Tuesday for the first time from the collapse of Bashar al-Assad government last month, since Russia tries to negotiate the future of its military bases in Syria with the new leadership of the country.
Among the diplomats that arrive in the Syrian capital on Tuesday there were the deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, Mikhail Bogdanov, who supervises Middle Eastern affairs and the special presidential envoy in Syria, Aleksandr Lavrentiev, according to reports from the Russian state press agency Tass.
The Syrian rebels who have overturned Mr. Al-Assad last month they fought for years against the government forces supported by Russia, but their provisional leader suggested that they want to continue the relations of Syria with Moscow, given the historical ties and overlaps of geopolitical interests.
Ahmed Al-Shara, the leader of the rebellious coalition that ousted Mr. Assad, defined Russia “an important country” in an interview with the Saudi Arabic state television channel at Arabiya last month. He said he didn’t want Russia to leave Syria “in the way a little desire”.
“We do not want Russia to come out in a way that undermines its relationships with our country,” said Al-Shara, observing Syria depended on Russia for all its weapons and manages many of its power plants.
The Al-Shara Islamist rebel group, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, was marked a terrorist organization from both Russia and the United States. But the leaders of Moscow and the West contacted him, in the midst of a wider scramble for the geopolitical influence in post -war Syria.
Russia has two main military bases in the country: the tartus naval base on the Mediterranean Sea, which dates back to the Soviet era, and the Air Base of Khmeimim near Latakia, which Russian forces created in 2015 in the civil war. Russian forces have also established small outposts across the country.
Having to close the bases would be a serious blow for the ambitions of Russia to maintain a military support point in the Middle East and to exert influence in the Mediterranean.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who extended the kindergarten to Al-Assad in Moscow, declared during his annual call-in show show that Russia must consider what to do with its foundations in Syria, now that the country is under new leadership.
“We have to think about it, because we must decide alone how our relationships will develop with those political forces that currently control and control the situation in this country,” said Putin.
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said in an interview with a state of Russian state average at the end of December that he expected that the new rebel leadership would make changes to the agreements on the bases.
“Undoubtedly, the change of power and the changes on the ground will make some adjustments to the military presence of Russia in Syria,” said Lavrov. “This includes not only the continuous distribution of our bases or strongholds, but also the terms of their functioning, maintenance and support and interaction with local authorities.”
He said these problems could be subject to negotiations with the new Syrian leadership.