Russia withdrew hundreds of soldiers from Damascus after the rebel takeover

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Russia has evacuated at least 400 soldiers from the Damascus area in recent days in coordination with the main rebel faction that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime, an official from the group said.

Kamal Lababidi, a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s political bureau, told the Financial Times in an interview that the soldiers were stationed at the Syrian Army’s notorious 4th Division headquarters in Qudsayya, on the outskirts capital.

Lababidi, who uses a long-standing pseudonym, said Russian soldiers stationed at the embassy in Damascus had also left over the past week and negotiations were ongoing to evacuate more troops across the country. .

The future of Russia’s presence in rebel-ruled Syria is unclear. Moscow has pledged its military to support ally Assad in the civil war, but the evacuation of Damascus is the latest sign that Moscow is scaling back its presence.

The evacuation also points to early signs of cooperation between Moscow and HTS after years of fighting on opposite sides of the brutal conflict.

Lababidi, who negotiated the Syrian withdrawal, said Russian military envoys met with HTS at the rebels’ de facto headquarters at the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus this week to negotiate the return of the rebels. The convoy traveled safely.

“The Russians came but only to coordinate the withdrawal of the bases,” Lababidi said.

He said the Russians left Damascus in a convoy by road to Moscow’s Hmeimim air base in northwestern Syria. From there, the plane carried the soldiers back to Russia.

A convoy of nearly 100 military vehicles was seen leaving the Damascus area – including armored vehicles, tractors, fuel tankers, mobile medical units among others – in a video provided to the FT.

Although there are no plans to close the embassy, ​​Lababidi said a Russian official had told him there would be a reduction in diplomatic activity.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it had evacuated some staff from Damascus, as well as staff in the city from the missions of North Korea, Belarus and Abkhazia, a breakaway state in the Caucasus. Independence from Georgia is recognized by five countries.

The ministry said “the work of the Russian embassy in Damascus is ongoing” without providing further details, according to Ria Novosti.

Russia has intervened in the civil war since 2015, deploying thousands of troops and providing extensive air support, tilting the conflict in Assad’s favor until a blitzkrieg by rebels this month. . Assad fled to Moscow.

Russia says its future in Syria will depend on negotiations with the new government in Damascus. During the attack, HTS signaled its willingness to cooperate with Moscow, saying the two could find common ground in rebuilding the country.

Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, said this week that Russia is having “constructive” negotiations with HTS and hopes to retain the base for the “war on terror.”

Losing Hmeimim and Moscow’s naval base at Tartus would be a strategic problem because the two locations are used as logistics hubs for Russia’s operations in the Mediterranean and operations across Africa.

In exchange for keeping the bases, analysts say Russia could provide money, energy or minerals to the new Syrian government as well as political support.

Hmeimim’s satellite images show the recent increase in ground vehicles, the appearance of large transport aircraft and the dismantling of Russian helicopters and air defenses – all elements consistent with the force reduction situation.

When asked about the future of the bases, Lababidi said Russia is not currently evacuating Hmeimim but is withdrawing personnel from other bases there.

Several prominent Syrian families close to the Assad regime have also been holed up at the Russian embassy in Damascus under Moscow’s protection since the regime’s fall a week ago, three people with direct knowledge said. with FT.

Some HTS fighters guarding the embassy grounds said Sunday they were stationed there to protect those inside the diplomatic mission and were not restricting their movements.

Militants said Russian embassy staff sometimes asked them to accompany them and act as guards when they went out on errands. Cars left the premises to buy groceries and go to the doctor.

But Lababidi said Moscow had been instructed by the new Syrian government not to create conditions for Syrians to leave the country.