MOSCOW – Moscow is sending three large landing ships with marines aboard to a Russian naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus, Russian news agencies quoted a source in the general staff as saying on Friday.
The source said each ship would have up to 120 marines on board and that the vessels, already in the Mediterranean, would arrive in Tartus by the end of this week or early next week.
The source said the ships’ mission was to replenish supplies at the small Russian maintenance and repair facility, manned by fewer than 100 personnel, according to analysts.
Russia had earlier said it was preparing to send marines to Syria in case it needed to protect personnel and remove equipment from the naval maintenance facility.
Syria is Moscow’s firmest foothold in the Middle East and bought $1 billion worth of weapons from Russia last year, or about 8 percent of total Russian arms exports.
Tartus is the Russian navy’s only permanent warm water port outside the former Soviet Union.
The source in the Russian General Staff said the three ships would be joined by three other ships from the Russian Navy’s Black Sea and Northern Sea fleets.
The potential loss of Tartus would be a strategic blow to Russia, according to what the Interfax news agency described as a military-diplomatic source.
“Tartus is of extreme military-strategic importance for the Russian Navy, as the backup for the task forces in the Mediterranean. Therefore, its loss would entail deep negative consequences and the actual loss of influence in this key region,” Interfax quoted the source as saying.
The Russian Defense Ministry declined comment. The General Staff source said the ships would head back to the Russian port of Novorossiysk after spending several days in Tartus.
Russia has blamed the West for the failure of diplomatic efforts led by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who resigned on Thursday. Moscow said it regretted his departure.
“He’s an honest broker, but there are those who want to take him out of the game to untie hands for the use of force. It’s already clear,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote in his Twitter microblog.
Russia and China have three times blocked Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria that were meant to put more pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
In the Security Council Russia and China have refused to vote on any steps with the West which would stop the terror in Syria. Why should we be surprised? They are Commies, and on top of that, Putin was KGB. You can take the man out of the KGB, but you can’t take the KGB out of the man. Last century the leaders of these two countries allowed millions and millions and millions of their citizens to die, whether by war or starvation. Much of the starvation was on purpose. They didn’t care. They might have killed the next Einstein or Steve Job’s predecessor, or any number of would-be inventors. Abraham Lincoln’s mother was illegitimate, the product of a Southern plantation aristocrat and Abe’s grandmother. She was taken in by the plantation owner, taught to read and write and made pregnant. Muslims would have killed Abe’s mother, and it was through her, who passed on to Abe the great intellect and talent Abe possessed.
We had to watch Putin preen for the camera during his off time as dictator of Russia. Some reports say little by little he is pulling back the freedoms of Russians. He seems determined to make trouble for America. To show us up, as if the economy has not already showed us up.
China is presently involved in a disagreement with the Philippines over an island for fishing rights, which is not far from the Philippines, and they refuse to arbitrate the matter. The U.S. congress did not pass a treaty that would solve this by international law. Hong Kongians are complaining about rights taken away from them, Taipei appears to be holding its own, but poor Tibet is suffering mightily as the Commies strive to bury their culture. China has a great history but this generation of Chinese are encouraged to lie and cheat, especially in business, and the U.S. is stepping up efforts to rein them in. Obama is already deploying more military forces to the Pacific. Yes, China has economic power, but they too can be brought down if economies collapse.
While I’m at it, I think the extremist Muslims are Commies too. Shame on the Muslim Communist Brotherhood. They are breaking promises left and right, first that they would not run a candidate for president, that they would not try to make Egypt a Communist Islamic State, and that any ideas of freedom and Democracy no longer holds. In the newspaper, Morsi said he will make Egypt safe for tourism. But what if the world boycotts Egyptian tourism until the path to democracy is resumed?
Death to all these commies for committing crimes against their people!
@ Laura:
120,000 would be a significant number, or even 12,000 as an advance guard. Hopefully, the war clock in the region is synchronized by Iranian uranium enrichment, not by Russian naval movements.
120 marines per ship.
Only 120 marines? For what? embassy guards? None of this strikes me as especially “newsy”. Tell me when it’s bombing in Galilee.