Russia will on Tuesday land two planes in Lebanon to evacuate more than 100 of its citizens from Syria, in a significant blow to the credibility of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Last week Moscow suspended operations at its consulate in Aleppo after a bombing at the city’s university killed more than 80 people Photo: SANA/EPA
By Alex Spillius, Diplomatic Correspondent and Tom Parfitt in Moscow
7:03PM GMT 21 Jan 2013
Giving only the barest details, the Russian emergency situations ministry said it was responding to a request from the country’s leaders.
The evacuees are likely to include staff from the embassy in Damascus, where fighting between government forces and the rebels was yesterday reported half a mile from the old city. Others are likely to be staff from Russian companies that have a presence in Syria.
Rising prices for basic commodities and fuel shortages have made life harder for residents of the capital. Though power cuts have become frequent, the entire city of 2.5 million was without power for the first time on Sunday night.
Insurgents control a crescent of suburbs to the east and south of the city and have been advancing slowly towards the centre.
Rebels last month attacked the airport, including a plane belonging to Syrian Airlines that has often been used to transport Iranian military aides. Rather than take off from Syria, the Russians will instead make the 70-mile journey by road to Lebanon before flying home.
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Russia’s foreign ministry began laying contingency plans for evacuating thousands of Russians last month, dispatching a group of five ships, including two assault ships, a tanker and an escort vessel from a Baltic Sea port to the Mediterranean.
Russia’s foreign ministry has said that 5,300 Russians are registered with its embassy in Damascus, but the total number in the country is thought to be closer to 30,000. Most of them are the Russian wives and children of Syrian nationals – a legacy of Cold War and post-Soviet ties - but there are also engineers, officials and military specialists.
Last week Moscow suspended operations at its consulate in the commercial centre Aleppo after a bombing at the city’s university killed more than 80 people.
Along with Iran, Russia has been the main ally of Mr Assad since the start of the conflict in March 2011. It has remained Syria’s biggest arms supplier and maintained a small naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast at Tartus. Moscow has routinely used its veto power at the United Nations Security Council to shield his regime from sanctions.
But in recent weeks its support has slipped, with a senior minister admitting that the rebels might triumph in a conflict that has claimed an estimated 60,000 lives, mostly civilians opposed to Mr Assad’s rule.
Moscow has supported efforts by Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy to Syria, to formulate a transition, joining talks with the Americans at least twice.
The head of the Arab League said Mr Brahimi’s mission had not yielded even a “flicker of hope”.
Nabil Elaraby, addressing the opening session of a two-day Arab economic summit in Saudi Arabia, proposed that the gathered heads of state call for an immediate meeting of the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Syria and establish a monitoring force to ensure compliance with the truce.
Though Russia’s decision to evacuate was bad news for Mr Assad and his inner circle, the opposition demonstrated one reason why they have been able to cling to power by failing to put together a transitional government to run rebel-held areas of the country.
Talks held by representatives of the opposition Syrian Opposition Coalition, a 70-member umbrella group, in Istanbul only highlighted divisions in the coalition.
“This is a big blow for the revolution against Bashar al-Assad,” said one opposition leader who attended the meeting but did not want to be named because he operates in secret in Syria.
The coalition however said in a statement that a five-member committee would offer proposals for forming a government within 10 days.
The first of six Nato Patriot missile batteries intended to protect Turkey from a potential Syrian attack arrived from Germany after Ankara asked for the alliance’s help to bolster security along its 560-mile border.
Damascus has called the move “provocative”, in part because Turkey’s missile request could be seen as a first step toward implementing a no-fly zone over Syrian airspace.
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