Russian officials arrived in Damascus, Syria on Jan.28, the first such delegation to visit the country since its Kremlin-backed dictator Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power in December, AP reported, citing Russian state media.
Assad was ousted from power following a lightning offensive by rebels, putting an end to a decade-long civil war. He took refuge in Moscow.
The delegation includes Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov, and the Russian president’s special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev.
Russian state media cited by AP did not specify the purpose of the delegation’s visit, but the new Syrian authorities' semi-official newspaper, Al Watan, reported it will meet with the de-facto new leader of the country Ahmad al-Sharaa, and with the new foreign minister.
After Assad was overthrown and fled to Russia, Moscow began withdrawing military and naval assets from Syria, and the future of its military bases such as the Tartus naval base and the Khmeimim air base remain unclear.
Moscow deployed its troops to Syria in 2015, providing support to the Assad regime against multiple anti-government forces. Damascus had been supportive of the Kremlin during the ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A "large amount" of Russian military equipment vanished from the Syrian port of Tartus with the departure of the Russian cargo ship Sparta II, an investigative journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Mark Krutov, said on Jan. 27, citing satellite images.
Another Russian cargo ship called Sparta remained docked in the port after the two ships idled for weeks off the coast before being granted permission to dock, the BBC reported.
The BBC added that there were probably two more Russian warships in the port, the Ivan Gren and the Aleksandr Otrakovsky. This assessment was supported by Ukraine's military intelligence.
Chris York
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