Damascus demands Moscow to give her Bashar al-Assad. According to Syrian news agency Sana, the fresh government in the country besides wants Russia, which supported al-Assad during the teenage civilian war, paid out damages and contributed to rebuilding the destroyed country. Moscow, however, refuses to admit its responsibility, as Reuters reported.
The fresh Syrian authorities reported that during the Tuesday talks with the Russian delegation led by Deputy abroad Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, “they stressed that the restoration of relations must take account of mistakes from the past, as well as the will of the Syrian people and their interests”.
Syria demands compensation from Russia
In turn, the Russian Ministry of abroad Affairs informed that during the meetings there was a "serve discussion" on various topics. It added that the parties would proceed their contacts in order to search "appropriate agreements". Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Pieskov refused to answer journalists' questions about Assad's release and compensation payment on Wednesday.
For years, Russia's troops supported Assad in the fight against Syrian rebels. The civilian war in Syria active Russian aviation, peculiar forces and, among others, Wagner's mercenary Group. Moscow was accused of participating in war crimes, attacking civilian structures, and carpet bombarding cities specified as Aleppo.
Despite the long-term assistance of the Kremlin at the end of last year, the swift offensive of the muslim forces of Hajat Tahrir ash-Sham (HTS) overthrew Assad and forced him to flee Damascus. He was evacuated to Moscow.
Asad's failure of power threatened 2 very crucial bases for Russia — a naval base in Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea and a Humajmi air base under the city of Latakia. Russia does not hide that it cares about maintaining both of these facilities.
The Tartus base is of strategical importance to Russia. The russian Navy has been stationed in it since 1971. After the collapse of the russian Union, Russian ships were withdrawn from there, but returned to Syrian port in 2012. Before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia further reinforced its military presence in the base to counter NATO aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean. Tartus is the only Russian base in the Mediterranean, peculiarly useful to Kremlin's military activity in Africa.
