Facebook post by Grigory Yavlinsky, 20.12.2016

Rescuing Bashar al-Assad’s regime and trying to recall the spirit of the confrontation of two great superpowers of the last century – the USSR and the US, – the Russian government dragged the country into a large-scale conflict, which generates instability for all its participants far beyond the combat zone. Russia challenged not only to the Syrian opponents of Bashar al-Assad, but also the whole Sunni world, which includes the majority of both Turkish and Russian Muslims. Russia’s relationships with Turkey have been already complicated once and very seriously, and it has been quite recently.

However, Russia does not control anything in the Syrian war, which we are deeply involved in. Russia has provided Bashar al-Assad control over Aleppo at the cost of enormous reputational and economic losses, as well as serious potential threats (it is our country, all the Russians, who are responsible for the deaths of civilians in Syria in the eyes of the international community and the majority of Sunni Muslims around the world). It has been still considered a victory. However, a few months ago the liberation of Palmyra was called a victory, but the only result of it, as it has turned out, was a concert held there [by Russia] with too much fanfare.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/yavlinsky.yabloko/posts/1260015860758235