Is Russia About To Attack Israel?

Is Russia About To Attack Israel?

By:  Marshall Ramsey II, Worthy News US Correspondent

MOSCOW, Russia - (Worthy News)  The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday issued contradictory statements concerning a fleet of its naval warships streaming into the eastern Mediterranean Sea.  The first statement made said the ships were not planning to call on Tartus, a naval base Russia maintains in Syria.

The second statement, issued hours later, said it was possible that service boats from the group might call on Tartus to "replenish supplies if the time period of the trip is extended."  This suggests that the warships were intended to stay in the region from the beginning and possibly be used as a refueling station in case Russia decides to invade a regional country, most likely Israel.

Earlier in the day, Interfax quoted a Russian Defense Ministry source as saying three landing assault ships, an anti-submarine ship, and four smaller ships might call on Tartus by Sunday.  The ships are carrying about 360 marines and amphibious armored personnel carriers.

The source did not specify whether the marines would remain in Tartus or leave with the warships, however that still begs the question why they are there in the first place.  Additionally, the presence of armored personnel carriers, three landing assault ships, an anti-submarine ship and four smaller ships of unknown description should be handled with extreme caution.  To say that Russia is there to stop the violence in Syria would be foolish, due to the fact that Russia, along with China, has repeatedly blocked any attempt to combat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in any form, and any UN resolutions passed should be seen as a complete farce, since any resolution passed is non-binding, and thus a complete waste of time.

According to Alexander Golts, a defense expert and deputy editor-in-chief with Yezhednevny Zhurnal, an online publication, the purpose of the ships is "to evacuate the personnel and equipment of the base."  This appears unlikely, as Goltz himself has stated, "This group is not sufficient enough to evacuate from 30,000 to 60,000 Russian citizens working and living in Syria unless the marines will be ordered to gain control of a landing strip at Damascus airport and help establish an air-bridge to take all the Russians out."  He did say that the Kremlin wants to have a military presence in Syria, although he attributed it to the "rapidly deteriorating situation," a reference to the current state of civil war there.

Boris Dolgov, a senior researcher with the Center for Arabic Studies in Moscow, doubts that the naval group was sent to the Mediterranean to evacuate Russian citizens which include "diplomats, mission employees, and persons working in Syria on contracts."

"Tartus is not a proper navy bast but just a repair port which can't be used for such a large-scale evacuation, said Dolgov, who has been to Syria twice after the conflict began about 17 months ago.  "It's too early to speak about such a serious step as an evacuation."

Information for this story taken from latimesblogs.latimes.com

UPDATE:  For some unknown reason, Russia is pulling all of its warships out of the Mediterranean.  Follow this link for more information:  http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/30/russian-warships-pull-out-of-syria-what-does-this-portend-short-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/