A photo of the first guidebook. Source: novayagazeta.ru
The Russian daily ‘Novaya Gazeta’ has released photos of two Syria guideboocks allegedly distributed among members of battalion “Sever” (“North”), a chechen battalion from the Natonal Guard of Russia.
The guidebooks were reportedly leaked to the daily by a member of the battalion.
The first brochure appeares to be a kind of survival guidebook. It provides info on Syria in general, translation of common and military phrases from Russian to Arabic, and some common tips (for example about drinking water and avoiding to use social networks). The guidbook is heavily illustrated.
Indeed, its credibility is questionable. There are serious doubts that Russian military servicemen need illustrations of common military equipment (battle tanks, pickups, armoured vehicles etc) and weapons (AK-47, RPG-7, mortar shells etc) to understand what is it.
A photo of the first guidebook. Source: novayagazeta.ru
The cover of the first guidebook. Source: novayagazeta.ru
A part of the dictionary. Source: novayagazeta.ru
Common tips with special attention to drinking water. Source: novayagazeta.ru
The second guidebook allegedly contains info about Syria, its regions, languages, local issues etc. According to the report, it does not contain illustrations. However, Novaya Gazeta does not proivde photos of the guidebook’s content.
According to Novaya Gazeta, the second brochure is printed by “64th National Guard brigade”. The problem is that the 64th National Guard brigade does not exist. The so-called battalion”Sever” is a part of the 46th National Guard brigade. The report supposes that this is a misprint or an attempt to hide the source of the content.
source: novayagazeta.ru
While credibility problems cannot be ignored, the style of the guidebooks looks similar to Soviet guidebooks prepared for people carrying out their internationalist duty across the world.
The ‘analitical part’ of Novaya Gazeta’s article is based on the mainstream media narrative and pushes ideas that the Syrian War is a “sectarian conflict” and that Syrian government forces conduct “cleansings very close to the definition of genocide”.
A screenshot of Novaya Gazeta’s article
More about the Russian National Guard:
I’d say its very smart to include lots of pictures in a book that is supposed to help servicemen to communicate in whats probably a very hard language for those not used to the script. Not only does a picture says more then a thousand words, a serviceman with trouble expressing themselves in Arabic could use images to point to them and communicate through that.
Dude, guidebook was distributed between chechens, many of them are familiar with arabic.
And 95% speak Chechen, If this were for Chechens it would be Chechen/Arabic. It is an obvious fabrication, and one that cost a lot of money to create, plant and leak in this fashion. Which interested party has the resources to pull this off?
Anyone with a desktop publishing program and a printing shop…
Anyone can print a guidebook or pay to have it printed. What requires less commonly available resources are access to the information, access to prior materials to enable creation of something that has a credible look, and the more limited ability to cause Novaya Gazeta to publish it and without seriously questioning its credibility. Unless it is suggested Novaya Gazeta is behind the “Russia is supporting genocide in Syria” propaganda these represent, that requires resources ordinary folks do not have.
That’s fair call, underestimated retirements, stand corrected.
“Novaya Gazeta” is part of the fifth-column “liberast” press in Russia who are basically traitors and enemy collaborators, whether willingly or out of stupid, delusional genuine “pro-Western” (in actual fact pro-U.S. imperialist and pro-globalist) conviction. Here they spout the same lying propaganda concerning Syria as the Western MSM, whom they receive their cues from. Look at this lie, for instance: “…Syrian government forces conduct “cleansings very close to the definition of genocide…” Actually, like in most Western “mainstream media” narratives, the truth is almost the exact OPPOSITE: it is the Western-and-Saudi-supported jihadi savages who have been conducting widespread genocidal ethnic and sectarian cleansings and killings of Christians, Alawites, Kurds, secular and moderate Sunnis, government supporters, etc. etc., and the Syrian government has in fact NOT been doing this – which in my opinion is a BAD thing, because both Syria and the world would benefit greatly from a cleansing of the jihadi-supporting, fanatic Islamist, backward part of the Sunni Muslim Arab population in Syria.
I am unable to read Russian and cannot do my own assessment of Novaya Gazeta. The quote above is from the pamphlet itself. From what I have been able to learn of Novaya Gazeta, while they are not hard line supporters of the current Russian government, their content and editorials do not indicate a media outlet pushing blatant Russophobic propaganda. Given that it would appear unlikely they promoted these phony pamphelts on their own initiative. But I very much welcome anything anyone might be able to add on this point.