PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik)


UPDATE 1830 GMT: Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov appears to have pulled back President Putin’s statement that Moscow has given weapons to the Free Syrian Army, saying that the aid is for regime forces:

We’re talking about military-technical cooperation. We are also [providing] certain supplies of what is called special assets. Deliveries are in strict accordance with international law. We are talking about the army. Russia supplies weapons to the Syrian Arab Republic, the legitimate authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic.


In an announcement which is likely to come as a surprise to the Free Syrian Army, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow is supporting the FSA’s operations across Syria.

Putin had said last month that the Russian air force hit several “terrorist” targets using Free Syrian Army information — a claim denied by the FSA — but he went farther today in his address to the Defense Ministry’s collegium:

The work of our aviation group assists in uniting the efforts of government troops and the Free Syrian Army.

Now several of its units numbering over 5,000 troops are engaged in offensive actions against terrorists, alongside regular forces, in the provinces of Homs, Hama, Aleppo and Raqqa.

We support it from the air, as well as the Syrian army, we assist them with weapons, ammunition and provide material support.

There is no material evidence for Russian assistance to the FSA, which Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called a “phantom army” in early October as Moscow began its airstrikes inside Syria.

In recent weeks Russian warplanes have been stepped up aerial attacks in areas where the FSA is operating, including northern Aleppo Province and northern Latakia Province near the Turkish border.

In the course of its operations, Russia may have given assistance in northern Aleppo to the dissident faction Jaish al-Thuwar, which has been fighting rebels in northern Aleppo, and the Kurdish militia YPG, which also clashed with rebels last month before a ceasefire was arranged. Moscow may also have given aid to regime militias in Hasakah Province in northeastern Syria.

Bizarrely, Russian State outlet RT sabotaged the Prime Minister’s statement: “Putin said more 5,000 members of the Free Syrian Army are operating on the terrorists’ side.”

“Anyone Who Threatens Us Will Be Destroyed”

Putin also used the speech to declare a “very tough” order against “those who will again try to organize any provocations against our servicemen”; “Any targets that threaten Russian forces or our infrastructure on the ground should be immediately destroyed.”

The Prime Minister insisted that, in dealing with a “threat to the Russian Federation itself”, Russian airstrikes since September 30 have “caused a serious damage to the terrorist infrastructure, thus qualitatively changing the situation in Syria”.

However, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appeared to contradict Putin when he said the influence of the Islamic State is increasing and that it now controls 70% of Syria. Estimating the number of IS fighters in Iraq and Syria at 60,000, he cited a threat of violence spilling over into post-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus.