All three options (reducing the operational terms of both bases from 49 to 5-10 years; Russia's withdrawal from Khmeimim, keeping the limited naval base in Tartus, like in the Soviet times; Moscow's refusal of both bases in favor of "special agreements" with Damascus on the use of Syria's transport infrastructure by the Russian military) are likely to be discussed.
Yet, a most negative scenario for Russia also couldn't be ruled out, whereas the bases would be kept until the summer of 2025 only. It could be combined with the third scenario, which is not the worst option for Moscow, but maybe not.
Much here depends on the effectiveness of the Western pressure on the new Syrian authorities. And not solely by the US (not by chance, Washington "suspended" the lift of sanctions till July 2025), but also the Europeans (Germany, France), who want to "win back" after the previous "fell out" of the Syrian crisis due to the successful actions of Iran and Russia in 2012-2024.
I assume that the issue of preserving the bases in Syria is likely to be discussed at a possible Putin and Trump meeting. Although, as mentioned in my previous comments, Syria is not among Washington's top priorities in the Middle East.
All three options (reducing the operational terms of both bases from 49 to 5-10 years; Russia's withdrawal from Khmeimim, keeping the limited naval base in Tartus, like in the Soviet times; Moscow's refusal of both bases in favor of "special agreements" with Damascus on the use of Syria's transport infrastructure by the Russian military) are likely to be discussed.
Yet, a most negative scenario for Russia also couldn't be ruled out, whereas the bases would be kept until the summer of 2025 only. It could be combined with the third scenario, which is not the worst option for Moscow, but maybe not.
Much here depends on the effectiveness of the Western pressure on the new Syrian authorities. And not solely by the US (not by chance, Washington "suspended" the lift of sanctions till July 2025), but also the Europeans (Germany, France), who want to "win back" after the previous "fell out" of the Syrian crisis due to the successful actions of Iran and Russia in 2012-2024.
I assume that the issue of preserving the bases in Syria is likely to be discussed at a possible Putin and Trump meeting. Although, as mentioned in my previous comments, Syria is not among Washington's top priorities in the Middle East.
And indeed, volatility has been a hallmark of the market environment so far in 2022, with the S&P 500 still down more than 10% for the year-to-date after first sliding into a correction last month. The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, has held at a lofty level of more than 30. Some people used the platform to organize ahead of the storming of the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, and last month Senator Mark Warner sent a letter to Durov urging him to curb Russian information operations on Telegram. Unlike Silicon Valley giants such as Facebook and Twitter, which run very public anti-disinformation programs, Brooking said: "Telegram is famously lax or absent in its content moderation policy." But the Ukraine Crisis Media Center's Tsekhanovska points out that communications are often down in zones most affected by the war, making this sort of cross-referencing a luxury many cannot afford. Given the pro-privacy stance of the platform, it’s taken as a given that it’ll be used for a number of reasons, not all of them good. And Telegram has been attached to a fair few scandals related to terrorism, sexual exploitation and crime. Back in 2015, Vox described Telegram as “ISIS’ app of choice,” saying that the platform’s real use is the ability to use channels to distribute material to large groups at once. Telegram has acted to remove public channels affiliated with terrorism, but Pavel Durov reiterated that he had no business snooping on private conversations.
from tr
