Russian government delegation makes first official visit to Syria since Assad’s fall

DAMASCUS (AP) — A delegation of Russian officials arrived in Damascus on Tuesday, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

It is the first such delegation to visit Syria since the fall of former President Bashar Assad, an ally of Moscow, in December in a lightning rebel offensive. Assad took refuge in Russia after his ouster.

The report said the delegation included Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov and the Russian president’s special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev. RIA Novosti didn’t offer any other details of the visit.

There was no official comment from Syria’s interim government, but the semi-official Al Watan newspaper reported that the Russian delegation would meet with the country’s de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and with the its foreign minister.

Moscow’s scorched-earth intervention in support of Assad once turned the tide of Syria’s civil war.

Syria’s new authorities have not cut off relations with Moscow or forced a complete exit of Russian military forces from bases in Syria, but earlier this month, Al Watan reported that a contract with a Russian company to manage the port in Tartous had been canceled.

Following Assad’s downfall, Russia relocated its troops and assets from all over Syria to its main hub at the Hmeimim air base near Latakia. There has been no indication that Moscow was preparing to evacuate the Hmeimim base or the naval facility in Tartus altogether.

The termination of a contract for a Russian company to modernize the Tartus commercial port did not directly impact the Russian naval facility, which was leased under a separate deal.

Associated Press, The Associated Press