Russia withdraws its remaining personnel from Syria

Evacuation signals growing concern in Moscow about conflict between ally Bashar al-Assad's regime and rebels

• Miriam Elder in Moscow and Ian Black, Middle East editor
• The Guardian, Wednesday 26 June 2013 13.30 EDT

 

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, said the defence ministry ‘does not have a single person in Syria’. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters

 

 

Russia has evacuated the last of its personnel from Syria, including from its Mediterranean naval base in Tartus, in a move that appears to underline Moscow's mounting concerns about the escalating crisis.
Russian media reported on Wednesday that they had confirmed the evacuation with officials in the country's military and foreign ministry. But there was no official confirmation of a claim from rebel Free Syrian Army sources that a Russian plane had been shot down and its pilot captured in the western Aleppo area.
The effective closure of the Tartus base would be a significant loss, though a 16-ship naval task force is still in the eastern Mediterranean. The base is Russia's only foothold in the Middle East.
Neighbouring Cyprus has, however, made its ports available to the Russian fleet. Cypriot media have reported that the government may allow Russia to use its base at Paphos to host military aircraft.
News that Russian forces had pulled out of Syria came in an interview with Mikhail Bogdanov, the deputy foreign minister, in an interview with the newspaper al-Hayat last week.
"Today, the Russian defence ministry does not have a single person in Syria," he said. He described Tartus as a "technical facility for maintaining ships sailing in the Mediterranean."


Read More Here