The West May Criticize As Much As It Wants But Russia Won’t Care

More and more Western leaders and media have criticized Russian’s actions in Syria.

The recent events regarding the Russian operation in Syria, the 5^th International Security Conference in Moscow, and the offensive in Aleppo by the Syrian Government troops have sparked, yet again, criticism in both Western media and leaders.

Julia Smirnova from Die Welt Moscow came out with a strong column regarding the latest events. In her opinion, “it’s evident that Russia is proud of its presence in Syria. In the lobby of Moscow’s ‘Ukraina’ hotel, guests of the security conference were greed by photos from Syria – of Russian sappers in Palmyra, Syrians waving Russian flags and raising portraits of Putin and Assad above their heads, of Russian warplanes in action.”

Well, it’s evident that Russia has something to be proud of. After the country’s absence in the big geopolitical games after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Syrian campaign got Russia ‘back in the game’.

These words also show some jealousy, because for the first time foreign troops have been welcomed and praised by the people in the Middle East. Nobody was waving American flags in their operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The columnist also added, “In Washington there is growing concern that two months on, the agreement reached with Russia for a truce between the parties in the Syrian civil war may come to naught. Opposition activists are reporting that the Syrian regime has mobilized troops in the north of the country, outside Aleppo. There fighting continues as if no one had even heard of the truce. On Friday, according to activists, over a hundred people were killed in Aleppo.”

Washington is not the only one concerned. Just a few days ago, France came out with a statement which condemned the Syrian offensive in Aleppo. Moreover, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his concern about the Russian heavy artillery which has been sent to the outskirts of Aleppo. He admitted that there are al-Nusra Front terrorists in the city, however he stated that there are also opposition forces which could break the shaky truce. In his words, the Syrian government troops would not be able to distinguish the militants of al-Nusra and the ones of the opposition.

Why so?

Let’s see which groups Kerry was talking about. A few of the big ones are Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar ash-Sham. Kerry was right saying that the Syrian forces would not be able to distinguish the opposition from the al-Nusra front, because they simple do the same things. Earlier this week, Russia came out with a statement to the UN, wanting these two groups to be added to the official list of terrorist groups. It’s no surprise that there were no results from Russia’s request.

What we see is only growing criticism regarding the Russian actions in Syria which actually preserved the country from being completely seized by terrorist groups which we’ve seen in Libya for example. Again comes the question – why? Why, when the West was so frightened by the Islamic State, and now, when Russia stopped the momentum of ISIS, these same Western countries, leaders and media are criticizing Russia and the Syrian government?

The answer is pretty simple – behind all of those ‘opposition groups’ stand those same Western countries and leaders. They wanted to make a color revolution in Syria, overthrow Assad, create chaos in the Middle East and now Russia stopped their plans. Of course they’ll blame Russia for everything, and will continue to criticize it, however neither Putin, nor Shoigu, nor Lavrov care about all of that and will continue to support Assad and their interests in Syria.

Author:
Viktor Stoilov,

SouthFront