Russian delegation makes first visit to Syria since Assad’s fall

Russian delegation makes first visit to Syria since Assad’s fall

DAMASCUS
Russian delegation makes first visit to Syria since Assad’s fallRussian delegation makes first visit to Syria since Assad’s fall

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

The first Russian official delegation to visit Syria since the toppling of Moscow ally Bashar al-Assad has arrived in Damascus, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday.

The delegation includes deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who is also President Vladimir Putin's special representative on the Middle East and Africa, as well as Alexander Lavrentyev, the president's special representative on Syria, the RIA Novosti agency reported.

It said it was "the first visit by Russian officials to Damascus" since Assad fled in December in the face of a lightning rebel advance across the country.

Moscow was one of Assad's key backers, intervening in Syria's civil war in 2015 in his favor. He and his family fled to Russia after his ouster.

Russia is now seeking to secure the fate of its naval base in Tartus and its air base at Khmeimim, both on Syria's Mediterranean coast and Moscow's only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union, with the new Syrian authorities.

Last week, Syria's new ruling administration has cancelled a contract with a Russian firm to manage and operate the country's Tartus port that was signed under former Assad.

The Russia-Syria Tartus Port deal, signed in 2019, granted Russian company Stroytransgaz a 49-year lease to operate and expand the strategic Mediterranean port.

The facility served as a strategic navy base for Moscow in the Mediterranean and was mostly used to deliver supplies to its military campaign in Syria and to repair warships.

Authorities also said that revenue from the port would “now benefit the Syrian state,” reversing the previous agreement under which Russia received 65 percent of Tartus’ profits.

The Islamist group led by Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is banned in Russia as a "terrorist" organization.

"All Syria's arms are of Russian origin, and many power plants are managed by Russian experts... We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some wish," Sharaa earlier said.

U.S. and Ukrainian diplomats visited Syria's new rulers last month.