Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in western Syria, December 2017
Amid Russian concern over Bashar al-Assad’s handling of political and economic issues, President Vladimir Putin has elevated Moscow’s ambassador in Damascus as his special representative for Syria.
Alexander Efimov, 62, has been in Syria since 2018. Publicly, he has put out Russia’s line damning the West for Syria’s nine-year conflict, in which the Assad regime has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and displaced millions.
Last month, Efimov told the Russian State outlet Sputnik that UN aid through border crossings not controlled by the regime limited Syria’s “sovereignty”. The statement accompanied a Moscow veto at the Security Council, ensuring the closure of crossings from Iraq and Jordan and allowing only two from Turkey.
See Syria Daily, May 20: Russia Rejects Reopening of Aid Routes
The ambassador dismissed human rights activists, who were calling for the release of political prisoners to shield them from Coronavirus, as “opponents of the legal Syrian authorities…deliberately making use of the situation around the pandemic of the deadly disease to implement their well-known goals”.
But Russian State outlets and Putin’s allies have stepped up pressure on Assad amid Syria’s economic crisis, with Syria Daily: Food Prices Soaringwidespread shortages and a 75% loss of GDP; corruption; and a failure to make any advance towards a Constitutional Committee after almost 2 1/2 years of Russian initiatives.
The outlets, including publications of “Putin’s chef” Yevgeny Prigozhin and the State’s Russian International Affair Council, criticized Assad for making no compromise towards a political resolution including the Constitutional Committee. They challenged the Syria leader’s lack of “a far-sighted and flexible approach”, and pointed to regime corruption. The Federal News Agency claimed a poll showing Assad has just 32% support, listing potential replacements from within the Syrian regime and the opposition.
The Kremlin is concerned at Russian failure to obtain a stake in the Syrian economy, amid the plutocracy around Assad and competition with Iran, another essential backer of the regime. A Western diplomat said Russian companies and the Wagner Group, set up by “Putin’s Chef” Prigozhin, are complaining about the absence of revenues, particularly in shares of the oil and gas sectors.
Moscow is also troubled that the failure to provide essential goods, amid the Coronavirus pandemic, could spark another rising in parts of Syria. The concern has been fed by hundreds of insurgent attacks and assassinations of officials in Daraa Province, where the uprising began in March 2011, in the south of the country.
See Syria Daily, April 20: Assad is Annoying Russia — But What Does Putin Do?
If rebels wanted to improve the designs of the drones they use on Khmeemim/Hama airbase then here’s one design:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPGDAZyQ44k
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If the drone operators amongst the rebels had brilliant manufacturing I would have suggested they create something that could similar to this:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBmhJ-jrzrc
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BTW in Libya Hafter’s men are already using loitering munitions as this link shows:
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https://twitter.com/oded121351/status/1250144972172648448
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Now before everyone says all these ideas are insane, won’t work, I’d like to point out that briefly during the Vietnam war the US military were using loitering devices as this wiki link shows:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Model_147
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Now imagine if you could create all these ‘loitering munitions’ and use them in a ‘drone swarm’ way (i.e. 8 to 12 flying into Khmeemim/Hama airbase on the same day, the same hour) in a multi-axis way (i.e. team 1 flying in from the north those Khmeemim/Hama airbase whilst on the same day and same hour team 2 flying in from the east) at the fast speed of 400 miles per hour as shown in the first video? It would overwhelm the Russian ‘anti-aircraft’ system at Khmeemim/Hama airbase in hours and panic the Assadists/Ruskies.