Putin Issues Support for Syrian Rebels in Fight Against ISIS

Both Putin and Shoigu spoke during the expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin orders his military to destroy all possible threats against the country.

On Thursday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Russian air force was preparing to use two Syrian airbases near Homs to strike targets in the Islamic State-controlled city of Palmyra.

About 56 percent of Russian nuclear weapons are new, including modern missiles, upgraded aircraft and a strengthened submarine capacity, Shoigu said.

However, Western analysts and Syrian rebel sources say that most of Russia’s military presence in Syria is aimed at keeping long-term Russian ally Assad in power.

Moscow’s latest strikes hit “300 targets of different kinds” in the past three days and helped Syrian special forces recover the black box of the Russian warplane downed by Turkey last month, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said it was up to the Syrian people to discuss the fate of president Bashar al-Assad.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said he would visit Moscow next week as Russian Federation and the US work to forge a framework for a Syrian ceasefire and political transition.

He said that a steady series of military exercises have helped improve servicemen’s skills and contributed to a successful performance of Russian pilots during the ongoing air campaign in Syria.

“We have provided air support for them as well as the Syrian army and also supplied them with weapons, ammunition and supplies”, Putin said.

The Russian military should coordinate its actions with Israel and the U.S.-led coalition against Daesh, he said. “Any targets threatening Russia’s (military) group or our land infrastructure must be immediately destroyed”, Putin told the generals.

Mr Putin did not elaborate on specific threats but Turkey and Russia are now locked in a spat over the downing of a Russian jet by Ankara.

Putin said the Russian military action in Syria is essential for protecting Russia from extremists based there.

“Islamic State is extending its zones of influence”. Our actions there aren’t motivated by some obscure and abstract geopolitical interests or a desire to train our forces and test new weapons – which is of course an important goal as well.

Russia’s ambitious arms modernization program has continued at full pace this year, even though low oil prices and Western sanctions drove the economy into recession this year. “The airbase has been reinforced with new air defense means”.