Russian Navy Admiral Viktor Chirkov said Sunday, May 12, that a permanent staff of 20 officers is in place to run Russian fleet operations in the Mediterranean Sea. It will comprise five to six warships and possibly nuclear submarines which, say our military sources, are armed with nuclear ballistic missiles. debkafile: Russia’s step aims at safeguarding the Assad regime and securing its Hizballah and Iranian allies. It also signals Moscow’s Middle East comeback after a 21-year absence - to confront Israel and Turkey.
 

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sets off for the Black Sea town of Sochi Tuesday to call on President Vladimir Putin for a last-ditch bid to avert the sale to Syria of advanced S-300 anti-air missiles. His chances of success are extremely slim.  

Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu, while in Shanghai, faced a sharp dressing-down from President Vladimir Putin Monday, May 6 and a warning that further Israeli attacks on Damascus would not be tolerated.  Putin said highly advanced Russian weapons, including S-300 air defense systems, would be supplied at speed to Syria. 

As Obama ponders his options on Syria and is increasingly abandoned by allies, Putin pushes supplies of heavy weapons to the Syrian army, along with high-class intelligence for Assad and his high command and a cooperation deal with Hizballah.

Officers and troops of the loyal 4^th and 3^rd army divisions are outfitted with gas masks and protective suits for continuous combat in a contaminated atmosphere. Assad is planning a short, sharp offensive to break the deadlock in the war with rapid victory, even if it can only be ...

Assad has asked Moscow for large numbers of attack helicopters to compensate for his lack of loyal troops. Washington has advised the Russians to think twice before assenting since he may not last beyond summer.

John Kerry begins his stint as US Secretary of State with the recognition that there is only one way to prevent Islamist groups from taking over the Syrian rebel movement while also preserving US influence in the rebel camp: and that is by working with the Russian plan for Syria. debkafile reveals that this plan is based on drawing armistice lines for dividing Syria up into sectors controlled variously by Syrian opposition groups and Assad loyalists. Russia and America will jointly oversee those sectors.

Vladimir Putin’s push for a stake of Gazprom in Israel’s offshore Leviathan, one of the world’s largest gas finds in the last decade, was cut short by Washington which brought in an Australian partner and promised the gas field protection under the US missile shield.

Russia has won from Baghdad the same privilege as Iran for using Iraqi air space as a corridor for delivering military supplies to Bashar Assad in Damascus. The huge arms deal Putin and Maliki signed this month provides Syria with a reserve arsenal across the border in Iraq.

As US intelligence gropes in the dark in Syria – unable to pin down the rebel leader or a suitable candidate to follow Sadat - Saudi secret service chief Prince Bandar uses Al Arabiya TV to release “classified Syrian security documents” for his propaganda campaign against Assad and other ...

Russia is ready to supply Iraqi Kurdistan with assault helicopters after Obama refused the KRG leader’s request for an air force. Moscow has acquired a stake in the oil of Kirkuk and accepts the Kurds’ need of an air force to protect it. Iraqi prime minister Maliki plands to ...

Russia has indeed left Assad high and dry by shutting down its early warning stations which warning Syrian air and missile defense batteries of oncoming threats and turning back a Russian warship carrying SA-17 missile interception batteries for Syria.

By US Gen. Martin Dempsey’s assertion Thursday, Aug. 30 that the US would not be “complicit” in an Israel strike against Iran, President Barack Obama was telling Israel: You are on your own! See how you manage without special US weapons and US military backup, including a shield against missile counter-attack. debkafile: A secret US-Russian deal is in the works. President Putin has cut off military ties with Iran and Syria, but Obama is having a hard time reciprocating by making Netanyahu give up on force against Iran.

A plague on all your houses, says Vladimir Putin as he pulls Russia and its army away from escalating Middle East violence in consequence of the foreign intervention he anticipates in Syria and an attack on Iran. Russian arms deliveries are cut off to Iran and Syria.

Russian naval vessels have unexpectedly departed the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus and Russian arms shipments to Syria have been suddenly discontinued. debkafile’s military sources reveal that those and other military steps indicate that the Russians are rapidly drawing away from the Syrian arena to avoid getting caught up in the escalating hostilities expected to arise from military intervention by the US, Europe and a number of Arab states. Russian intelligence seems certain that this foreign intervention is imminent.

Bashar Assad kept his cool after losing his closest intimates and senior axe men of his savage campaign against the rebels. He replaced them all in a jiffy and carried on his war without breaking stride.

Vladimir Putin has seized on the Eurozone crisis to buy controlling shares in Greek and Cypriot oil and gas fields and infrastructure in return for bailing out their sinking economies. President Vladimir Putin had more than one fish to fry in dispatching a large flotilla of Russian warships to the eastern Mediterranean. They are on hand not just for the Syrian crisis but also to secure the hot new energy acquisitions about to fall in Moscow’s lap.
 

Moscow has removed the gloves in its defense of Syrian ruler Bashar Assad.  Wednesday, July 4, senior Russian official Ruslan Pukhov warned: “If the Syrian regime is changed by force or if Russia doesn't like the outcome, it most likely will respond by selling S-300s to Iran."  This threat gave substance to the hints thrown out by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his June 25 visit to Israel about breaking the UN arms embargo against Iran. debkafile’s military sources disclose that Israel has developed counter-measures for this advanced Russian missile.

Saying “An Islamist flood threatens us all, the Russian president put before the Israeli prime minister propositions of a secret conduit through Moscow to Tehran and help for mending Turkish-Israeli relations in return for a Russian stake in Mediterranean oil.

Unconfirmed first reports from British, French and Turkish sources say British special forces crossed from Turkey into northern Syria Tuesday, May 26, advancing up to 10 kilometers inside the country. Those sources also report heavy fighting around the Republican Guards compound guarding Bashar Assad's palace on Mount Qaisoun overlooking Damascus. This two-pronged assault on the Assad regime, if confirmed, began at the end of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Israel. It challenges his repeated objections to foreign intervention.