Free Republic

Lines of Russian troops in desert khaki greeted President Vladimir V. Putin in Syria in 2017. Declaring that Moscow had accomplished its mission in Syria’s civil war, Mr. Putin pledged that Russia was there to stay. “If the terrorists raise their heads again,” he said on the tarmac of a Russian air base, “we will deal unprecedented strikes unlike anything they have seen.” But over the last two weeks, as the rebels that Russia called terrorists swept across Syria aiming to topple one of Russia’s closest allies, President Bashar al-Assad, those “unprecedented” strikes were nowhere to be seen. Instead, with...

Syrian rebel leaders have guaranteed the security of Russian military installations in the country, as well as diplomatic buildings, Russians briefed on the situation said Sunday. Russia has maintained a naval hub at the Mediterranean port of Tartus and the Khmeimim air base in northwestern Syria since Moscow's military helped President Bashar al-Assad claw back the majority of the country, after nationwide protests that erupted in 2011 threatened his rule. The fall of the Assad regime threatens to limit Russia's ability to project power in the Middle East. Russian state media reported Sunday that Assad had been granted asylum in...

Some 2,000 North Korean soldiers have completed training in Russia and are being sent to its Western regions near the border with Ukraine, Japan's Kyodo News said on Thursday. The troops traveling by train are likely bound for the Kursk region, where an advance team of about 10 officers has established a base of operations to receive North Korean ground forces, reported Kyodo, citing Ukrainian military intelligence. Russia has been fighting off a Ukrainian incursion into Kursk, which borders Ukraine's Sumy region, since August.