The Syrian rebels’ lightning offensive, which allowed them to conquer the large city of Aleppo, in the northwest of the country, in a few days, seems to have taken the Damascus regime… and Russian commentators by surprise.
Monday, December 2, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, limited himself to reaffirming his support for the power in place. “We of course continue to support Bashar El-Assad and, at the appropriate levels, we continue our contacts and analyze the situation,” he declared, quoted by the official Interfax agency. A few days earlier he had called “return of constitutional order” in the country, without making further comments.
On Tuesday, December 3, the official Moscow press affirmed that the Russian air force continued to carry out strikes on the positions of the insurgents, while recognizing that the troops loyal to Damascus had to largely abandon their positions in the regions of Idlib and from Aleppo.
The online newspaper Vzgliad even speaks of the opening of a “second front” after that of the war in Ukraine – which still officially bears the name “special military operation”. The title, considered one of the platforms of Russian hawks, points out Turkey’s role in this “escalator
Belgium
