Statement by the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, 3.12.2019

The Federal Political Committee of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko notes the dangerous counterproductiveness of Russia’s policies in the Middle East: the country did not gain allies there but got bogged down in a strange, endless civil war that claimed thousands of lives.

In 2015, the Russian leadership promised that the operation in Syria would last less than a year, then it was announced several times that the operation had been completed and the troops had been withdrawn, and now Vladimir Putin has announced that the Russian army will remain in Syria until the Syrian leadership asks it to leave, that is, to infinity.

The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the purpose of the operation was to prevent the transformation of Syria into the same territory of chaos as Iraq and Libya became after the intervention of the West. But now Syria is just such a territory. Bashar al-Assad’s government rests solely on the Russian and the Iranian aid, a significant part of the country’s territory is not controlled by the authorities.

Today Russia does not have enough political weight to mediate in any kind of peaceful settlement in the region. When a country is not able to offer either economic or serious humanitarian assistance, but only supplies weapons and mercenary soldiers to the ever-warring region (simultaneously to all the warring parties), it gets a reputation as a beneficiary interested in continuing the wars. No one will consider such a country as a mediator and will never forget its sinister role in the outbreak of war.

Russian bombing, which led to numerous casualties, and cynically announced as a “test” of new weapons, create an atmosphere of hatred and thirst for revenge.

Natives of Russia and the CIS countries participating in the activities of terrorist organisations are being relocated to Afghanistan, forming centres of terrorist activity there in close proximity to Russian borders.

Among the new risks there are the emergence of a line of contact with Turkish troops and an increase in the likelihood of a conflict with Turkey (much larger than that caused by a downed Russian plane in November 2015), and new clashes with jihadist groups. Meanwhile, the danger of getting hit by the Americans, as it was with the Russian mercenaries in February 2018, does not become less.

There has been increasingly more evidence of Russia’s involvement in the civil war in Libya, including participation of Russian mercenaries in hostilities.

While the support of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria is propagandistically justified by the protection of the sovereignty and the “legitimate government”, in Libya Russia is on the side of those leading hostilities against the official authorities.

This once again confirms that the basis of Russia’s Middle East policies, as well as the foreign policy in general is neither [the protection of the] mythical “national interests”, nor principles or a well-thought-out strategy, but an explosive mixture of momentary greed, groundless geopolitical ambitions and the desire to annoy the West at all costs.

On these grounds, Russia enters into allied relations with the regimes that support terrorists and threaten Russia itself: in fact, Russia has become Iran’s military ally in the region and at the same time proposes to deliver to its main enemy, Saudi Arabia, S-400 air defense systems.

Such a Middle East policy, or rather, its absence, must be discarded, and the sooner the better.

Decisive changes are needed in the Russian foreign policy in the Middle East and Africa.

The Federal Political Committee proposes the following:

• stop considering the Middle East and other conflicts, that turn into a tragedy for a huge number of people, as a testing ground for weapons and satisfying personal ambitions of officials and the military;
• stop squandering for these purposes the funds needed for domestic development;
• develop a plan for returning the Russian troops home and begin to implement it;
• seriously and completely abandon state support for mercenaries, the practice of using private military companies affiliated with government agencies;
• focus on strengthening Russian borders with unstable regions of the world and preventing real threats of extremists and terrorists penetrating through these borders;
• direct diplomatic efforts towards creation of a solid system of international unions of a real anti-terrorist orientation.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko Party

Grigory Yavlinsky is Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko Party, Vice-President of Liberal International. Doctor of Economics, Professor of the National Research University “Higher School of Economics”.