{"id":339085,"date":"2017-12-12T15:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T14:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/putin-stages-mission-accomplished-visit-to-syria\/"},"modified":"2017-12-12T15:00:36","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T14:00:36","slug":"putin-stages-mission-accomplished-visit-to-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/putin-stages-mission-accomplished-visit-to-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin stages \u201cmission accomplished\u201d visit to Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Putin stages \u201cmission accomplished\u201d visit to Syria<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Bill Van Auken<br \/>\n    <br \/>12 December 2017<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a surprise visit to Syria Monday, delivering a laudatory speech to Russian troops at the Hmeimim air base in the country\u2019s coastal province of Latakia and meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n<p>Russia intervened in Syria at Assad\u2019s request beginning two and a half years ago, providing air support and other aid that proved critical in reversing the gains made by Al Qaeda-linked \u201crebels\u201d that had been armed and financed by the CIA, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Gulf oil monarchies.<\/p>\n<p>Putin\u2019s visit came just days after he and the Russian Defense Ministry had declared a \u201ccomplete victory\u201d over the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has been routed from all major Syrian cities, reduced to a few pockets along the Euphrates River in eastern Deir Ezzor province.<\/p>\n<p>Putin said he had ordered the military to withdraw \u201ca significant part\u201d of the Russian military contingent from Syria. At the same time, Moscow has made it clear that it will hold onto the Hmeimim air base, which has been the command and control center for Russia\u2019s military operations in the country since the fall of 2015, as well as the Russian naval base at Syria\u2019s Mediterranean port city of Tartus.<\/p>\n<p>Putin declared in his address to the Russian troops, \u201cIf the terrorists raise their heads again, we will strike them with blows, the likes of which they have never seen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The plan for Putin to land in Syria was kept secret until after his plane had touched down. Coming barely three months before Russia\u2019s presidential election, in which Putin is running for another six-year term, the Russian president\u2019s speech had a \u201cmission&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2017\/12\/12\/puti-d12.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Putin stages \u201cmission accomplished\u201d visit to Syria By Bill Van Auken 12 December 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a surprise visit to Syria Monday, delivering a laudatory speech to Russian troops at the Hmeimim air base in the country\u2019s coastal province of Latakia and meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. Russia intervened [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-339085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}