Russia pulls hundreds of troops out of Damascus after rebel takeover

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

The soldiers were stationed at the notorious headquarters of the Syrian army’s Fourth Division, located in Qudsaya, a suburb of the capital, Kamal Lababidi, a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s political bureau, told the Financial Times in an interview.

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

The future of Russia’s presence in rebel-held Syria is unclear: Moscow has committed troops to support its ally Assad during the civil war, but the flight from Damascus is the latest sign that it is reducing its presence.

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

Russian military envoys met with the HTS at the rebels’ de facto headquarters, the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus, to negotiate the convoy’s safe passage, said Lababidi, who negotiated the retreat from the Syrian side.

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

He said that the Russians left Damascus in a ground convoy to Moscow’s Hmeimim airbase in northwestern Syria, and from there planes took the soldiers back to Russia.

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

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

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

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Sunday it had evacuated some staff from Damascus, as well as missions in North Korea, Belarus and Abkhazia, a breakaway state in the Caucasus whose independence from Georgia is recognized by five countries.

The ministry said that “the work of the Russian Embassy in Damascus continues,” without further details, Ria Novosti reports.

Russia has intervened in the civil war since 2015, deploying several thousand troops and large-scale air support, which turned the tide of the conflict in Assad’s favor until a blitzkrieg attack this month saw Assad flee to Moscow.

Russia has said its future in Syria will depend on negotiations with the new government in Damascus.At the time of its attack, the HTS signaled it was ready to work with Moscow, saying the two could find common ground on rebuilding the country.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said this week that Russia was holding “constructive” talks with HTS and hoped to maintain a “counter-terrorism” base.

Losing Hmeimim and Moscow’s naval base at Tartus would be a strategic issue, as the two sites are used as logistical hubs for Russia’s operations in the Mediterranean and operations in Africa.

In exchange for keeping the bases, analysts speculate that Russia could offer the new Syrian government money, energy or minerals, as well as political support.

Satellite photography of Hmeimim has shown a recent increase in ground vehicles, the arrival of large transport aircraft and the dismantling of Russian helicopters and air defenses, all factors consistent with the reduction.

Asked about the future of the bases, Lababidi said Russia was not currently evacuating Hmeimim, but rather withdrawing personnel from other bases there.

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

On Sunday, several HTS fighters guarding the embassy perimeter said they were deployed there to provide protection for people inside the diplomatic mission and did not restrict their movements.

Russian embassy staff also sometimes asked them to accompany them and act as their guards when they went out on errands, the fighters said, leaving the area to buy groceries and see a doctor.

However, Lababidi said that the new Syrian government instructed Moscow not to facilitate the departure of Syrians from the country.