President Vladimir Putin has visited a Russian military air base in Syria, declaring victory and announcing a partial pullout of his forces.
Mr Putin’s surprise visit marked his first trip to Syria, drawing a symbolic line under the campaign that has shored up President Bashar Assad’s government.
It was also the first visit by a foreign head of state to war-ravaged Syria since its bloodletting began nearly seven years ago.
Mr Putin’s brief stop at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia en route to Egypt came days after the Russian president declared his bid to run for re-election in a March 18 vote, helping encourage the feelings of pride about Russia’s revived global clout and prestige.
It also followed the Russian announcement last week that the Syrian army, with the help of Russian airstrikes, routed the Islamic State group in eastern Syria and fully restored control over the country’s border with Iraq.
The Russian leader hailed his “excellent” performance in Syria, saying “You have shown the best qualities of a Russian soldier, courage, valour, team spirit, decisiveness and skills.”
Russia launched its air campaign in Syria in September 2015, when Mr Assad’s government was teetering on the brink of collapse, and quickly changed the course of the conflict in his favour.
Russian officials say troops in Syria were there mainly to fight IS group and al Qaida affiliates, but they also heavily targeted other rebel factions opposed to Mr Assad helping him stay in power.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article