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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Will Russia Bring Syrian Fighters to Ukraine? |
| 2022-03-13 |
Yesterday Hezbollah, today hiring cannon fodder at $200-300 for a six month stint from the pool of Russia-linked Syrian paramilitaries, while trained Syrian combat troops from the 4th Armored Division and 5th Corps are to get up to $3000. [AnNahar] With Russia's war on Ukraine now in its third week, Russian President Vladimir Putin...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... on Friday approved bringing in volunteer fighters from the Middle East, particularly Syria. Syria clearly has a rich pool of fighters to draw from. Russia's military is deeply entrenched in the Mideast country, where its intervention - starting in 2015 - helped Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #13 Getting close to throwing in the towel, thank God: Zelensky Ready to Negotiate, Open to High-Level Peace Talks in Jerusalem Tom Ozimek Mar 12, 2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he’s ready to hold high-level peace talks with Russia, flagging Jerusalem as a possible location and expressing hope that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett could help broker a deal Putin struck an optimistic note on the several rounds of technical negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegates in Belarus, saying he saw a positive shift in the discussions. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cease military action, pledge never to join NATO and enshrine neutrality in its constitution, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory, and recognize the separatist-controlled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. Zelensky earlier signaled openness to a compromise with Putin on some of his key demands for halting the offensive in Ukraine, including on NATO membership and the status of the contested territories |
| Posted by: Hunter Bidens Laptop 2022-03-13 12:54 |
| #12 #4 Post-conflict mop up and security crew. #5 This is most likely a sign the conflict's getting close to its endgame. Yeah, those things. After playing Calvinball in Syria for a while, I can see how a war with actual sides might have some appeal for the Syrians. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2022-03-13 12:36 |
| #11 Russia will if it needs men to walk in front of them and soak up all the bullets. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2022-03-13 12:26 |
| #10 #9 - Dictators gotta Dick |
| Posted by: Frank G 2022-03-13 11:47 |
| #9 they should talk to some of their brothers who went to Libya on behalf of the new Ottoman Empire. A bunch of them — still unpaid because Neo-Ottoman Sultan Erdogan the First is still paying off his new 1000-room palace — were shipped off to Azerbaijan to bully Armenia with. They reportedly were not paid for that work, either. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2022-03-13 10:57 |
| #8 They can't, their dead. |
| Posted by: Chris 2022-03-13 10:26 |
| #7 Before they leave they should talk to some of their brothers who went to Libya on behalf of the new Ottoman Empire. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2022-03-13 10:13 |
| #6 I can almost see the Time Magazine 'Man of the Year' cover and caption. Nobel Committee probably already drafting prize narratives. "President Biden's secret negotiations with Putin pulled the world away from the edge of nuclear conflict." |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2022-03-13 01:13 |
| #5 This is most likely a sign the conflict's getting close to its endgame. Hope for everyone's sake that Zelensky takes Bennett's advice. |
| Posted by: No Fortunate Son 2022-03-13 00:55 |
| #4 Post-conflict mop up and security crew. Bad things happen? Vlad reports, "hey, wouldn't us." |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2022-03-13 00:52 |
| #3 Bashar al Assad inherited the Baathists from his father — Arab Socialist, not Muslim as such, though his tribe is traditionally a Shiite variant. Turkey’s local Turkik Muslim Brotherhooder and ISIS remnant paramilitaries, and Al Nusra and its Al Qaeda franchise and Muslim Brotherhood allies are the religious ones in Syria. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2022-03-13 00:45 |
| #2 What's next? Recruit General Ursus? |
| Posted by: borgboy 2022-03-13 00:28 |
| #1 Assad's finest? What they hell, is this a drive by Putin to demilitarize the islamics? Choose a conflict and pour them all into it. Next up, Taliban? |
| Posted by: Cthulhu of Ryleh 2022-03-13 00:14 |