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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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30Sep15
Russia Approves Using Forces Abroad Amid Dispute With West Over Syria
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, in the latest step in his dispute with the West over the crisis in Syria, sought and won approval from the upper house of Parliament on Wednesday to use military force abroad.
Russian officials portrayed the move as an attempt both to fight Islamic State militants and to try to ensure the survival of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Russia's main ally in the Middle East. But Russian intervention would most likely prolong and complicate the war, as it would keep Mr. Assad in office and would add Russian forces to those already on Syrian missions.
Sergei B. Ivanov, Mr. Putin's chief of staff, appealed to the upper house, the Federation Council, for the measure, describing it as an open-ended deployment of the Russian Air Force to support Mr. Assad -- at his request -- in his fight against the Islamic State.
"We are going to use only the air force," Mr. Ivanov said in remarks to a closed session of the council that were broadcast after the measure was approved unanimously, 162 to 0. The use of ground forces was "excluded," Mr. Ivanov said, repeating what Mr. Putin has emphasized in recent weeks.
"It will be air support for the Syrian forces in their struggle with ISIS," Mr. Ivanov said, using another term for the Islamic State.
Although approval by the Federation Council is generally considered a rubber stamp, a similar vote preceded the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine in March 2014, including to Crimea, which Russia annexed.
The Federation Council withdrew that approval in late June 2014. After that, Russia described any soldiers fighting in southeast Ukraine as "volunteers," although Ukraine and its Western supporters continued to accuse Russia of deploying its forces across the border.
The Russian authorization of force came just two days after Mr. Putin and President Obama met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where they clashed over Syria. Mr. Putin says Mr. Assad is a bulwark against the Islamic State, while Mr. Obama says the Syrian war cannot be resolved until Mr. Assad leaves.
Mr. Putin called for a grand international coalition to fight the Islamic State, saying in his speech at the United Nations that the world needed to support Mr. Assad and Kurdish forces fighting on the ground in order to defeat the Islamic State, much as the world fought Hitler during World War II.
But Mr. Obama emphasized that the United States wants Mr. Assad to go, a position seconded by crucial allies in the region, like Saudi Arabia.
Although the two men failed to reach an agreement on Syria, the United States and Russia are expected to try to establish some coordination for flights in the region, as Western warplanes have been flying missions against the Islamic State for a year.
For weeks, the United States said that Russia was deploying military equipment and soldiers to a Syrian airfield near Latakia. Russian officials said the cargo carriers flying to the site were delivering humanitarian aid.
Russian surveillance drones have been sighted over parts of Syria where other rebel groups are deployed, specifically those in Idlib Province that threaten Latakia. Latakia is the heart of the coastal homeland of much of the Alawite minority elite that runs Syria, including the Assad clan.
Russian drones have not been sighted over Islamic State-controlled areas in northwestern Syria, even though Mr. Ivanov said on Wednesday that Russia was mainly trying to fight the Islamic State and was not trying to expand its influence in the Middle East. Roughly 2,400 Russians are believed to have joined the Islamic State.
"We are not speaking of achieving anybody's ambitions, as our Western partners regularly accuse us," Mr. Ivanov said. "We are speaking exclusively about the national interests of the Russian federation."
Russia had already said it would establish an information center in Baghdad so that Iran, Iraq and Syria could pool intelligence about the Islamic State, which controls wide stretches of territory in Iraq and Syria.
After his meeting with Mr. Obama, Mr. Putin belittled efforts by Australia, France and the United States to fight Islamic State militants. The Russian military had counted 43 strikes in Syria in 24 hours, he said.
"What is the result? Nobody knows if there is any," Mr. Putin said. "If we set ourselves the target of resolving specific issues and achieving specific goals, this work should be coordinated in order to be successful. The center was set up to coordinate efforts. I would like to repeat that it has been set up for all who are interested in combating terrorism to join in."
Mr. Putin said that Russia and the United States had agreed to work out appropriate measures and that "there needs to be some informational coordination."
On Wednesday, Mr. Ivanov took pains to argue that the Western countries flying missions against the Islamic State were acting outside international law, because they did not have United Nations approval. But the Russian actions are legal, he said, because Damascus requested them.
In Syria, state-run news media strongly endorsed the move by Russia, which it said was dispatching forces to Syria. Supporters of Mr. Assad seemed particularly pleased that Russia was sending military aid because they felt his endorsement at the United Nations two days ago was a bit tepid.
Deploying troops abroad remains a delicate topic in Russia, where memories of the bloody fight against antigovernment forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s remain fresh.
Mr. Putin's motives for interfering in Syria are seen as having both international and domestic angles. On the international front, he wants to restore Russian influence as a global power and to try to force an end to the diplomatic and financial isolation the West imposed after Moscow seized Crimea and supported separatists in southeast Ukraine.
Domestically, he wants to draw attention away from the Ukraine conflict and to the troubles it has caused, as well as to burnish his image as an international actor who solves problems.
[Source: By Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times, Moscow, 30Sep15]
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