The Interfax news agency said June 18 that two Russian navy ships are to sail to Syria to protect Russian citizens and its naval base there. This would mark the first time since the uprising in Syria started that Russia is sending extra troops to its base in Syria.
Interfax quoted an unidentified
Russian navy official as saying that the Nikolai Filchenkov and Caesar
Kunikov amphibious assault vessels will be heading to the Syrian port of
Tartus, but didn’t give a precise date. The official said the ships
will carry an unspecified number of marines to protect Russians in Syria
and evacuate materials from Tartus if necessary.
The Defense
Ministry had no immediate comment, and an official at the Russian Black
Sea fleet declined to comment. Tartus is Russia’s only naval base
outside the former Soviet Union with Russian personnel of an unspecified
size. The bulk of Russian military men in Syria are military advisers
teaching Syrians how to use Russian weapons.
Russia has shielded
Syria’s regime from international sanctions over its crackdown on
protests. It also continued to provide it with arms.
Opposition
groups say more than 14,000 people have been killed since the Syrian
uprising began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful protests against
President Bashar Assad’s autocratic regime. But a ferocious government
crackdown led many to take up arms, and the conflict is now an armed
insurgency.
