Initial Russian reactions to Syria attack
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Washington of "playing the game" against terrorists and of "aggravating the humanitarian catastrophe" in Syria, after the attack on Friday night on Syrian military installations by the US, United Kingdom and France. Allied military action is the response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Bashar al-Assad regime in the town of Duma, outside Damascus.
In a note released by the Kremlin, Putin condemns "in the most serious way" the "aggression" committed by the US and its allies "against a sovereign state that is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism”, as El País publishes. In addition, the Russian leader announces the convening of an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council to "debate the aggressive actions of the US and its allies." However, it does not warn of Russian responses, as Russian authorities had been threatening in the past days. The Russian Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, announced that none of the Allied missiles had fallen in the area controlled by the Russian anti-aircraft defenses, responsible for the facilities at the Tartus and Jmeinim bases.
The Russians were previously warned of the circumstances of the attack, as the official French spokesmen hinted, although the US officially denies it. The fact that there have been no casualties or damage to the Russian military contingent displaced to Syria since autumn 2015 in support of the Assad regime indicates that the danger of an uncontrolled escalation between Moscow and Washington, for now, has been avoided. The Russian military experts are divided on the measures that Moscow could take in this matter. Now, they concentrate their idea of success on the war potential of the anti-missile systems supplied by Russia to Damascus and on the percentage of allied missiles intercepted.
According to Putin, just as a year ago when the US attacked the Syrian base of Shairat, the "excuse" for US action has been the "staging of an attack on the civilian population with toxic substances", this time in Duma, in the outskirts of Damascus. Putin says Russian military experts, who were at the scene of the incident, "did not detect traces of the use of chlorine or any other toxic substance" and that "no local inhabitant confirmed the chemical attack." The Russian leader accuses the US and its allies of taking military actions "cynically ignoring" the mission sent to Syria by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and without waiting for the results of the investigation that must be carried out by the specialists of this body.
"With its actions, the US further aggravates the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria, causes suffering to the civilian population and in fact plays into the hands of the terrorists who have been martyred for the Syrian people for seven years." "The current escalation of the situation around Syria exerts a destructive influence on the whole system of international relations," says Putin. The world has awakened to this upsetting news. Fear of a new world war arose again.
