Russia monitoring situation in Syria to assist compatriots

Published time: July 04, 2012 12:44
Edited time: July 04, 2012 16:44
Members of the Syrian Free Army walk in front of a damaged tank in Idlib July 3, 2012. (Reuters/Shaam News Network/Handout)

Following a visit to the embattled Arab country, the Russian Public Chamber said it is closely watching the situation in Syria to evacuate Russians if necessary.

Many Russians with relatives in Syria requested the assistance of the Chamber, Alexander Sokolov, said on Wednesday. He heads the working group on international cooperation and public diplomacy that has paid a visit to Syria.

"Of course, we are not indifference to our compatriots' fate,” he said. “We met with them."

Sokolov said there is no need at the time being “to sound the alarm to evacuate the compatriots.”

The Chamber has asked the Foreign Ministry to strengthen Russia’s consular presence in Syria, while adding that it did not believe the situation is “catastrophic” at present.

Maxim Grigoryev, Public Chamber working group member, believes the element of foreign interference does not allow the Syrian authorities to implement the necessary reforms in full.

“It seems that everything was prepared earlier,” he observed. “There is information the militants before the beginning of the protest actions (which began on March 15, 2011) rented apartments in various cities in Syria.”

“Apparently, they (the organizers of the protests) had prepared themselves for such developments," he added.

Grigoryev mentioned that President Assad still enjoys majority support across the country.

“The number of participants in rallies in support of the current authorities is more than the number in the opposition demonstrations,” he said. “Nobody forces people to go to meetings in support of the government.”

Grigoryev, citing various reports, revealed that militants in Homs protected themselves with the civilian population and did not allow civilians to leave the area. Also those in refugee camps are not being allowed to return to Syria, and humanitarian organizations are denied entry.

The Syrian opposition has refused to accept all international efforts to end the violence if President Assad plays any part in a transitional government.

Robert Bridge, RT


Comments (21)

MOHAMd (unregistered) 29.07.2012 09:03

syrian citizen do they need visa to Russia ?

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Syrian citizen (unregistered) 07.07.2012 01:13

darktitan (unregistered) wrote in #11
Syrian citizen (unregistered) wrote in #10 Lies,Opposit ion protests are on daily basis all over the country, in some places the protesters are in thousands in very small villages(more than 90% of its population), and they are going out to protest knowing that Assad's forces will shoot at them directly, so one protester in Syria equals more than 1000 protesters in the rest of the world, state TV denies the presence of any protest or crime, whilst the supporters gather every 5 or 6 months under the request and organisation of Assad's regime, any worker in the public sector will be considered a traitor to Assad if he/she did not attend, they organize buses from the Alawite villages to the capital or big cities, Assad's forces don't shoot at them and the state TV broadcast this event. All the statistics say that the percent of population participating in opposition protests are the highest in history   Im from Syria and the only one that lies here is you! 70% of the ppl wants Assad and wants the security and peace he provided before this terrorist came to Syria.
Wow, I'm Syrian, you are not, and I can say that 70% of Syrians are against Assad , any if he's confident of his popularity why do they shoot at protesters?why do they burn doctors who provide medical treatment to them?why do they arrest the elite of society?Why do they prevent foreign media from covering the protests?why don't Assad accept to step down if he can win fair elections?why the supporting Alwite areas are safe?why do terrorists kill only Sunnis and protesters?

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Billy1 06.07.2012 14:34

@ liberty (unregistered ) I just like to remind you about your accusation of all the killings is done by heavy artillery... And of cause it's so obvious that you and theone that have the same one sided opinion here hve some kind of group that tries with a (fantastic number of  + ), if one compare to what the normal scores usually gets , it's speaks it all! But I will remind you of he findings of the UN observers, with regard to the masacres of civilians!They found that about 5 or 6 people had injuries that could have been caused by artillery, in contrast to the majority of the killed was killed with knifes or shot at point blank execution style! 

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