Syria
Monday 22 May 2017
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Russian Defense Ministry
Ministry's Center for the Reconciliation of the Warring Sides in Syria
“According to information from a number of sources among local residents and opposition formations … special ‘video brigades’ carried out staged filming in the past week of the alleged consequences of shelling and airstrikes, including the use of ‘poisonous substances.”
Read more...Russia has accused Al Jazeera of faking videos of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. But no matter how many times they rewrite the story, it looks extremely flimsy. -
Yevgeny Satanovsky
President, Institute of the Middle East, Russia
“All soil samples, fragments and shells with the same sarin found in Aleppo were long ago handed over to the U.N. by the Russian Aerospace Forces. But no one intended or intends to test them or investigate the details of the case.”
Read more...The president of the Moscow-based Institute of the Middle East, Yevgeny Satanovsky, accused the United Nations of ignoring samples of the chemical weapon sarin used in earlier incidents in Syria’s Aleppo province that the Russian military supposedly handed over to the U.N., suggesting the world body would ignore evidence of a sarin poisoning incident in Idlib province on April 4. However, Russia did not hand over samples from the earlier incidents. -
Igor Konashenkov
Spokesman, Russian Ministry of Defense
“According to data from Russian means of objective control of the airspace, yesterday between 11:30 to 12:30, local time, Syrian aircraft carried out strikes on the eastern outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun against a large warehouse of ammunition of the terrorists and a cluster of military equipment. On the territory of this warehouse, there were workshops for the manufacture of bombs filled with toxic agents."
Read more...The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Wednesday that the previous day’s devastating poisonous gassing in Khan Sheikhoun was accidently caused by an airstrike on a terrorist facility. Yet, the time that the gas poisoning was first reported preceded by at least five hours the time the Russian Defense Ministry says the alleged airstrike took place. Meanwhile, a leading chemical warfare expert dismissed the Russian version of events as “rubbish.” -
Russian Embassy to the United Kingdom
“Russia welcomes #Oscars award for “White Helmets” film. Indeed, they are actors serving an agenda, not rescuers. #OscarMistake”
Read more...Despite the Russian embassy claim, the so-called White Helmets have been documented repeatedly doing rescue work. Journalists have been eyewitness to many of the groups' rescue efforts, crucially documenting much of it on video. A Canadian journalist working for RT claimed actors were used in White Helmet videos of rescues. However, other media were able to disprove this claim. -
Sergei Ryabkov
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
“We call attention to the fact their body of evidence isn't simply thin or full of holes, but that it's practically non-existent."
Read more...Russia has continued to deny the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime in Syria despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. -
Sergei Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
"We are convinced that we acted correctly when we responded positively to the request of the lawful government of Syria, a UN member state, a country whose capital was two to three weeks away from being seized by the terrorists.”
Read more...The Assad regime was in trouble by the time Russia intervened in Syria in the early fall of 2015. But anti-Assad rebels were not focused on Damascus, nor were the extremist groups Islamic State or Al-Qaeda making inroads near the capital. -
Russian Ministry of Defense
Press Release
“On January 22, 2017, the command center of the Air-Space Forces of Russia based in Hmeymim received from the American side, via a direct line from the headquarters of the international coalition, the coordinates of IS targets in the area near al-Bab, Aleppo province. After conducting reconnaissance...two planes of the Russian Air-Space forces and two planes of the international coalition forces conducted airstrikes against terrorist objectives.”
Read more...Russia’s Department of Defense appears to be stretching beyond the truth when it says Russia and the “international coalition” joined in a bombing mission in Syria against IS. Russian and Turkish media – and experts contacted by Polygraph.info - say recent air strikes on al-Bab were carried out by Russian and Turkish jets. While Turkey allows the U.S.-led coalition to use Incirlik air base, Turkish air strikes on Syria are not conducted under the coalition’s command. -
Igor Konashenkov
Representative, Russian Ministry of Defense
“Amazingly, it was only oil extracting facilities already captured by IS that did not get hit by the U.S. and coalition bombardment."
Read more...Russia’s Ministry of Defense accuses the U.S. and its coalition partner of targeting “everything except IS oil facilities” in Syria. But documentation of coalition attacks prove the opposite. -
Ramzan Kadyrov
Head of Russia's Chechen Republic
"The domestic media are disseminating reports about the 'sending' to Syria of 'servicemen' from the Vostok and Zapad Battalions. I can say with confidence that there are no Vostok or Zapad battalions in the Chechen Republic."
Read more...Experts agree that these particular units were disbanded after the Georgian war, and although a similarly-named Vostok battalions showed up in the war in the Donbas, it appeared not to be controlled by Kadyrov. Separately, the regional news site Caucasian Knot reported December 9 that 500 soldiers, mainly from among local Chechens, had been sent to Syria, including some who had once been in the now-disbanded battalions. -
Sergei Rudskoy
Chief of the Russian General Staff Main
“All of this is achieved by Syrian ground troops…Russian aviation in the Aleppo area has not been used since October 18.”
Read more...One of Russia’s top military officials said on December 9, 2016, that Russian military jets, which had been conducting military assaults on rebel forces in Syria on behalf of the regime, had not bombed the Aleppo area since October 18. Independent monitors say they have tallies showing otherwise. -
Russian Ministry of Defense
"Reports alleging that one of the convoys carrying 950 militants and their families was turned back to the city absolutely do not correspond with reality."
Read more...The Russian Ministry of Defense denied that a convoy carrying nearly a thousand people out of eastern Aleppo was held and then sent back on December 16 as that very incident was being filmed by international news organizations.