Russian Troops May Station in Syria Permanently

16 January 2016 2:59 Rubric: Russia, Conflicts

The agreement on deployment of Russian air group in Syria was concluded between the two countries for indefinite term. That was said in the agreement dated August 26, 2015 and published on Thursday, January 14, on the official web portal of legal information.

"This Agreement shall last for an indefinite period. In case any party is intending to terminate this Agreement, it shall inform another party about the same in written. In such a case, application of this Agreement shall terminate for one year since the date of receipt of such notification", says the document cited by Lenta.Ru.

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Russia delivers strikes upon terrorist groups located in Syria, including radical organizations "Islamic State" and "Jabhat an-Nusra" (both banned in Russia) since September 30, 2015, having deployed a special-purpose air brigade (currently amounting to 44 airplanes and 16 helicopters) on the Hmeimim airbase. Earlier on, Syrian president Bashar Assad asked Moscow for military assistance. In total, as of January 11, 2016, Russian air force has performed 5,551 mission sorties against terrorist’s facilities.

Russian president Vladimir Putin repeatedly stated that Russia’s campaign in Syria had a well-defined timeframe. "These operations won’t last forever. I’ve always said they would be of a temporal nature. It depends on the offensive operation of Syrian national army against terrorist organizations", said the Russian leader late in November. However, he has never set the deadlines.