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How Russia allowed homegrown radicals to go and fight in Syria

File photo of Russian President Putin, Defence Minister Shoigu and FSB Director Bortnikov watching events to mark Victory Day in Sevastopol

By Maria Tsvetkova

NOVOSASITLI, Russia (Reuters) – Four years ago, Saadu Sharapudinov was a wanted man in Russia. A member of an outlawed Islamist group, he was hiding in the forests of the North Caucasus, dodging patrols by paramilitary police and plotting a holy war against Moscow.

Then his fortunes took a dramatic turn. Sharapudinov, 38, told Reuters that in December 2012 Russian intelligence officers presented him with an unexpected offer. If he agreed to leave Russia, the authorities would not arrest him. In fact, they would facilitate his departure.

“I was in hiding, I was part of an illegal armed group, I was armed,” said Sharapudinov during an interview in a country outside Russia. Yet he says the authorities cut him a deal. “They said: ‘We want you to leave.'”

Sharapudinov agreed to go. A few months later, he was given a new passport in a new name, and a one-way plane ticket to Istanbul. Shortly after arriving in Turkey, he crossed into Syria and joined an Islamist group that would later pledge allegiance to radical Sunni group Islamic State.

Reuters has identified five other Russian radicals who, relatives and local officials say, also left Russia with direct or indirect help from the authorities and ended up in Syria. The departures followed a pattern, said Sharapudinov, relatives of the Islamists and former and acting officials: Moscow wanted to eradicate the risk of domestic terror attacks, so intelligence and police officials turned a blind eye to Islamic militants leaving the country. Some sources say officials even encouraged militants to leave.

The scheme continued until at least 2014, according to acting and former officials as well as relatives of those who left. The cases indicate the scheme ramped up ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics because the Russian authorities feared home-grown militants would try to attack the event.

The six Russian militants and radicals identified by Reuters all ended up in Syria, most of them fighting with jihadist groups that Russia now says are its mortal enemies. They were just a fraction of the radicals who left Russia during that period. By December 2015, some 2,900 Russians had left to fight in the Middle East, Alexander Bortnikov, director of the FSB, the Russian security service, said at a sitting of the National Anti-terrorist Committee late last year. According to official data, more than 90 percent of them left Russia after mid-2013.

“Russian is the third language in the Islamic State after Arabic and English. Russia is one of its important suppliers of foreign fighters,” said Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, a senior analyst for International Crisis Group, an independent body aimed at resolving conflicts.

“Before the Olympics, Russian authorities didn’t prevent departures and a big number of fighters left Russia. There was a very specific short-term task to ensure security of the Olympics … They turned a blind eye on the flow of radical youth” to the Middle East.

Moscow is now fighting Islamic State and other militant groups in Syria that the Kremlin says pose a threat to the security of Russia and the world. The Kremlin has justified its campaign of air strikes in Syria by saying its main objective was to crush Islamic State.

Russian authorities deny they ever ran a program to help militants leave the country. They say militants left of their own volition and without state help. Officials, including FSB director Bortnikov and authorities in the North Caucasus, have blamed the departures on Islamic State recruiters and foreign countries who give radicals safe passage to Syria and elsewhere.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told Reuters: “Russian authorities have never cooperated or interacted with terrorists. No interaction with terrorists was possible. Terrorists get annihilated in Russia. It has always been like that, it is like that and it will be in the future.”

The Foreign Ministry said claims that Russian law enforcement agencies had helped militants were “without grounds.” It said the agencies take various measures to prevent militants from leaving and to bring to account those who come back. It added that Russia has opened hundreds of criminal cases relating to Russian citizens fighting in Syria, and that therefore it was “absurd” to believe officials had facilitated the departure of militants from Russia.

The Interior Ministry declined to comment, saying the FSB was in charge of the issue. The FSB in Dagestan declined immediate comment.

MUTUAL BENEFIT

Allowing militants to leave Russia was convenient for both radicals and the authorities. In the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region, the two sides had fought themselves to a stalemate.

The Islamist groups, fighting to establish a Muslim state in the region, were exhausted after years on the run and had failed to score any significant victories against security forces. The authorities were frustrated because the militants – holed up in remote mountain hideouts or protected by sympathizers – still eluded arrest.

Then from 2013 Islamists began threatening to attack the Sochi Olympics, posting videos of their threats online. An attack would embarrass Putin at an event meant to showcase Russia; Moscow ordered a crackdown.

A retired Russian special forces officer with years of battlefield experience in the North Caucasus told Reuters that the federal authorities put pressure on local officials to curb insurgency ahead of the Sochi games. “They told them before the Olympics that no failures would be forgiven and those who failed would be fired. They tightened the screws on them,” he said.

The initial approach to Sharapudinov came from a political official in the militant’s home village of Novosasitli in Dagestan, a region in the North Caucasus. The official, who has since retired, became the liaison between Sharapudinov and Russian security services. He confirmed Sharapudinov’s account to Reuters.

It took Sharapudinov several months to decide whether to take up the offer of a deal. He eventually chose to trust the local official, whom he had known since childhood.

According to Sharapudinov, the intermediary took him to the town of Khasavyurt, where a high-ranking local FSB official was waiting. Though Sharapudinov had been given guarantees about his safety, he remained suspicious, he said. So he took along a pistol and a grenade in his pocket, despite a condition that he should come unarmed.

Sharapudinov had never previously tried to leave Russia, even clandestinely, because he thought he might be caught or shot. And leaving Russia openly would have been impossible because he was on a wanted list on suspicion of being involved in a bombing. If caught and convicted, he faced eight years to life in prison.

But now, according to Sharapudinov, the FSB officer said he was free to leave Russia and that the state would help him go.

“They said: ‘Go wherever you want, you can even go fight in Syria,'” Sharapudinov told Reuters in December. He recalled that the Olympics came up in the negotiations. “They said something like, ‘to let the Olympics pass without incidents.’ They didn’t conceal they were sending out others as well,” he said.

NEW NAME

Sharapudinov had his own reasons for leaving Russia. There were tensions between him and the local emir, who was also the commander of the militant group to which he belonged. When Sharapudinov told his mother of the FSB’s offer, she tearfully asked him to take it, he said, because she did not want him to be a fugitive any longer.

The plan required the involvement of more state machinery: Sharapudinov needed a new passport to leave Russia, according to the former local official who acted as a go-between.

“Since he was on the wanted list, they couldn’t send him out otherwise,” the former official told Reuters.

Sharapudinov said he was handed a new passport when he arrived at the Mineralnye Vody airport in southern Russia in September 2013, where he was escorted by an FSB employee in a silver Lada car with darkened windows. Along with the passport he got a one-way ticket to Turkey.

Sharapudinov showed Reuters the passport that he said had been supplied by the Russian state. It had a slightly different name and date of birth to those recorded for Sharapudinov on an official list of wanted militants. The photograph showed Sharapudinov, who had a beard when he was interviewed for this article, as shaved. He said he had got rid of his beard for the new passport.

While Reuters was unable to confirm the provenance of the passport, neighbors of Sharapudinov and the former official who acted as a go-between confirmed his identity and his story of how he got the document. Sharapudinov asked that the name in the passport, which he uses as his new identity, not be published.

North Caucasus security officials deny that Islamist radicals were intentionally helped out of the country, but agree their absence helped to solve security problems in the region. “Of course, the departure of Dagestani radicals in large numbers made the situation in the republic healthier,” said Magomed Abdurashidov from the Anti-terrorist Commission of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

A security services officer who took part in negotiations with militants from Novosasitli confirmed that a few fighters “laid down arms and came out” from hiding before later traveling to Syria. “Since they disarmed we stopped prosecuting them,” he said.

He said there were cases over a few years but that it had nothing to do with the Sochi Games. He said the security services did not help anyone leave. “If no measures are being taken against them, according to law, they have same rights as every Russian citizen,” he said. “They could get an international passport and leave.”

The security services officer said he did not know Sharapudinov’s case.

SUDDENLY DISAPPEARED

When Sharapudinov got to Syria, he said, Islamic State was on the rise but did not control much territory. He joined a rebel group called Sabri Jamaat with other fighters from Russia and post-Soviet states. They were based in Al Dana near Aleppo, and Islamic State controlled neighboring territory.

According to Sharapudinov, the two groups were friendly toward each other. Later, Sabri Jamaat pledged allegiance to Islamic State, though Sharapudinov said that by that time he had quit fighting and left Syria. He declined to say whether he had seen other Dagestani radicals in Syria.

Reuters independently found details of five other militants who left Russia in similar circumstances to Sharapudinov. The five are either dead, in jail or still in Syria and unreachable.

Relatives, neighbors and local officials gave accounts of what happened to the men. The five shared some common threads: They were all from Dagestan, and Russian authorities had reason to deny them travel documents and prevent them from leaving the country. But according to relatives and local officials, in each case the authorities made their passage possible.

One of the five other militants who left Russia was Magomed Rabadanov from the village of Berikey. A local police officer in the village said that in 2014 his orders were to keep a close eye on Rabadanov and other suspected radicals as part of a new security policy established before the Sochi Olympics.

He said he was told to put potential radicals on a watch list and to telephone them once a month. “If they didn’t pick up, we had to find them,” the officer said in his office, showing a Reuters reporter Rabadanov’s profile on his computer monitor. The police officer said that during preparations for the Olympics, Rabadanov was listed as a person “with non-traditional Islamic beliefs, Wahhabism” –  the school of Sunni Islam known for its strict interpretation of the faith.

At one point, Rabadanov had been detained for keeping explosives at his home, according to his father, Suleiban Rabadanov, but had been released shortly afterwards and placed under house arrest instead.

Despite being under such restriction, Rabadanov was able to leave Russia: He passed through passport control at a Moscow international airport along with his wife and his son in May 2014, his father and the local police officer said. He later turned up in Syria, his father said. Government officials had no comment on Rabadanov.

Suleiban Rabadanov said he received a message on Jan. 2, 2015, from someone who said his son had been killed fighting with Islamic State militants against Kurdish forces near the Syrian town of Kobani, on the border with Turkey.

The father of another militant also said his son was allowed to leave Russia as part of a deal with the authorities. The former official who acted as the go-between in Sharapudinov’s case said two other militants were helped to get passports.

Residents and officials in Dagestan said that once Russian militants arrived in Syria they encouraged others from their home communities to join them. From the village of Berikey, which has a population of 3,000, some 28 people left for areas of the Middle East controlled by Islamic State, according to the local police officer. He said 19 of the 28 were listed in Russia as radicals.

In a police station near Berikey, a Reuters reporter saw a computer file on dozens of suspected militants. The file was entitled “Wahs,” an abbreviation the police use for “Wahhabis.”

Some pictures showed groups of bearded young men from Berikey and nearby villages, posing with guns. The officer said the photographs, found or received online, showed the men in Syria and Iraq.

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(Web version) How Russia allowed homegrown radicals to go and fight in Syria – http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/russia-militants/

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(Edited by Richard Woods, Simon Robinson and Christian Lowe)

Air strikes on Syrian camp kill 28 near Turkish border

A boy carries his belongings at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's al-Fardous district

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) – Air strikes on a camp housing Syrians uprooted by war killed 28 people near the Turkish border on Thursday, a monitoring group said, and fighting raged in parts of northern Syria despite a temporary deal to cease hostilities in the city of Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included women and children and the death toll from the air strikes, which hit a camp for internally displaced people near the town of Sarmada, was likely to rise.

Sarmada lies about 30 km (20 miles) west of the city of Aleppo, where a cessation of hostilities brokered by Russia and the United States had brought a measure of relief on Thursday. But fighting continued nearby and President Bashar al-Assad said he still sought total victory over rebels in Syria.

Syrian state media said the army would abide by a “regime of calm” in the city that came into effect at 1 a.m. (6.00 p.m. ET on Wednesday) for 48 hours, after two weeks of death and destruction.

The army blamed Islamist insurgents for violating the agreement overnight by what it called indiscriminate shelling of some government-held residential areas of divided Aleppo. Residents said the violence had eased by morning and more shops had opened up.

Heavy fighting was reported in the southern Aleppo countryside near the town of Khan Touman, where al Qaeda’s Syrian branch Nusra Front is dug in close to a stronghold of Iranian-backed militias, a rebel source said.

Government forces carried out air attacks on the area and rebels were attacking government positions around the town, pro-Syrian government television channel Al-Mayadeen and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Pro-opposition media said an Islamist insurgent carried out a suicide bomb attack against government positions in Khan Touman.

A TV station controlled by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside the Syrian army, said the army used a guided missile to destroy a suicide car bomb before it reached its target in that area.

Elsewhere in Syria, fighting persisted. Islamic State militants captured the Shaer gas field in the east of the country, the first gain for the jihadists in the Palmyra desert area since they lost the ancient city in March, according to rebel sources and a monitor.

Amaq, an IS-affiliated news agency, said Islamic State militants killed at least 30 Syrian troops stationed at Shaer and seized heavy weapons, tanks and missiles.

Russian war jets were also reported to have struck militant hideouts in the town of Sukhna in the same Palmyra desert area.

“FINAL VICTORY”

Assad said he would accept nothing less than an outright victory in the five-year-old conflict against rebels across Syria, state media reported.

In a telegram to Russian President Vladimir Putin thanking Moscow for its military support, Assad said the army was set on “attaining final victory” and “crushing the aggression”.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least one person was killed overnight in rebel shelling of the Midan neighborhood on the government-held side of Aleppo, which was Syria’s commercial hub and largest city before the war.

Twenty rockets fell on government-held parts of Aleppo on Thursday, state media said.

But a resident of the rebel-held eastern part of the city said that although warplanes flew overnight, there were none of the intense raids seen during the past 10 days of air strikes.

People in several districts ventured onto the streets where more shops than normal had opened, the resident of al Shaar neighborhood said.

Another resident said civilians in several districts sensed a general trend toward calm. “From last night it was positive and my wife went out to shop and shops opened and people breathed. We did not hear the shelling and bombing we had gotten accustomed to,” Sameh Tutunji, a merchant said.

A rebel source also said that despite intermittent firing across the city’s main front lines, fighting had subsided and no army shelling of residential areas had been heard.

“Although we’re seeing less fighting today, the massive onslaught of violence over these past two weeks would make almost anything look like improvement,” the North Syria Director for aid organization Mercy Corps Xavier Tissier said.

“We aren’t going to celebrate a temporary break in targeted attacks on civilians and aid workers. The cessation of hostilities must hold for the long term,” Tissier said.

Rebels also said government helicopters dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held Dahyat al-Rashdeen al Junobi, northwest of Aleppo, and near the Jamiyat al Zahraa area, which saw a rebel ground assault pushed back on Wednesday.

The recent surge in bloodshed in Aleppo had wrecked a February cessation of hostilities agreement sponsored by Washington and Moscow, backers of the rival sides. The truce excluded Islamic State and the Nusra Front.

A spokesman for the mainstream opposition said the Saudi-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC) supported the deal but wanted the truce to cover all of Syria, not just Aleppo. It accused the government of violating it.

Syria’s foreign ministry said in response to today’s fighting: “The criminal violations of the regime of calm in Aleppo reveal without a doubt the true face of the armed terrorist groups supported by Turkey, Saudi, Qatar and other states, and that they only want blood and fire for Aleppo without caring if they kill Syrians and destroy their country.”

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman and Lisa Barrington in Beirut; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Russian forces in Syria fired on Israeli aircraft: Israeli newspaper

Vladimir Putin and Netanyahu

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Russian forces in Syria have fired at least twice on Israeli military aircraft, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek improved operational coordination with Moscow, Israel’s top-selling newspaper said on Friday.

Asked about the alleged incidents, however, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “In this case, Israeli press reports are far from reality.”

But Netanyahu, in remarks published by Israeli reporters whom he briefed by phone on his talks on Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said “there have been problems” regarding Israeli military freedom of operation in Syria.

He gave no details, but said: “If you don’t deal with the friction, it could develop into something more serious.”

The unsourced report in Yedioth Ahronoth made no mention of dates or locations for the two reported incidents, nor did it give any indication of whether the Israeli planes were hit.

Russia mounted its military intervention in Syria in September to shore Damascus up amid a now 5-year-old rebellion.

Separately, Israel’s Channel 10 TV said a Russian warplane approached an Israeli warplane off the Mediterranean coast of Syria last week but that there was no contact between them.

An Israeli military spokesman declined comment. Netanyahu’s office and the Russian embassy in Israel did not immediately respond.

Israel, which says it has carried out dozens of bombings in Syria to foil suspected arms handovers to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, was quick to set up an operational hotline with Moscow designed to avoid accidentally trading fire with Russian interventionary forces.

In Moscow on Thursday, Netanyahu told Putin in televised remarks: “I came here with one main goal – to strengthen the security coordination between us so as to avoid mishaps, misunderstandings and unnecessary confrontations.”

In an apparent allusion to Syria, Putin said: “I think there are understandable reasons for these intensive contacts (with Israel), given the complicated situation in the region.”

According to Yedioth, the reported Russian fire on Israeli planes was first raised with Putin by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who visited Moscow on March 15. At the time, Putin responded that he was unaware of the incidents, Yedioth said.

(Writing by Dan Williams and Jeffrey Heller; Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Netanyahu to discuss military coordination with Putin

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights near the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria

MOSCOW (Рейтер) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had arrived to Moscow to discuss closer military coordination to avoid incidents between Israel and Russia, which launched a military operation in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year.

At the start of the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Netanyahu said that the Golan Heights is a “red line” for Israel and it must remain a part of it.

“We are doing everything to prevent the emergence of an additional front of terror against us at the Golan Heights,” he added.

(Reporting by Denis Dyomkin, writing by Maria Tsvetkova; editing by Vladimir Soldatkin)

On ground in Syria, scant evidence of draw down trumpeted by Kremlin

Russian Navy Landing Ship

By Jack Stubbs and Maria Tsvetkova

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A month since Vladimir Putin announced the withdrawal of most Russian forces from Syria, his military contingent there is as strong as ever, with fewer jets but many more attack helicopters able to provide closer combat support to government troops.

A Reuters analysis of publicly available tracking data shows no letup in supply missions: the Russian military has maintained regular cargo flights to its Hmeimim airbase in western Syria since Putin’s declaration on March 14.

Supply runs have also continued via the “Syrian Express” shipping route, Russian engineering troops have been deployed to the ancient city of Palmyra and further information has surfaced about Russian special forces operating in Syria – suggesting the Kremlin is more deeply embroiled in the conflict than it previously acknowledged.

“There hasn’t been a drawdown in any meaningful way,” said Nick de Larrinaga, Europe Editor of IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly. “Russia’s military presence in Syria is just as powerful now as it was at the end of 2015.”

Announcing a drawdown gave Putin some breathing space from Western political pressure over the operation, and an opportunity to carry out maintenance on heavily-used jets.

But by keeping a strong military force in place, Putin is maintaining his power to influence the situation in Syria by shoring up President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow’s closest ally in the Middle East.

He will also want to secure Russia’s role in efforts to broker a resolution to the conflict – a process the Kremlin has used to reassert itself as a global political power after being ostracized by the West over the Ukraine crisis.

As recently as Thursday, photos and video footage taken by Turkish bloggers for their online project Bosphorus Naval News showed a Russian Navy landing ship – the Saratov – en route to Russia’s Tartous naval facility in the western Syrian province of Latakia loaded with at least ten military trucks.

The Saratov is a regular feature on Russia’s “Syrian Express” shipping route, which Moscow has used to transport increased supplies and equipment to Syria since the military draw down was announced.

The Russian Defence Ministry did not respond to written questions submitted by Reuters

“MORE FORMIDABLE FORCE”

Russian troops and equipment have also been deployed to Syria by air in recent weeks.

An Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane operated by the Russian Air Force under registration number RA-78830 has flown two supply trips a month to Syria since December. Its last flight to Russia’s Latakia airbase was on April 9-10 according to tracking data on website FlightRadar24.com.

Able to carry up to 145 people or 50 tonnes of equipment, Il-76 planes have been used to transport heavy vehicles including helicopters to Syria, a Russian Air Force colonel told Reuters, bolstering the number of gunships in the country as Russia’s jet force deployment is wound down.

“We removed some planes and added helicopters. We don’t need mass bomb drops during a ceasefire,” the colonel said. “Helicopters fly lower and can observe the territory better.”

Russia now has more than 30 helicopters operating in Syria, including a fleet of around eight Mi-28N Night Hunter and Ka-52 Alligator gunships stationed at its Shayrat airbase southeast of Homs city, according to satellite images posted online by IHS Jane’s analysts.

Separate images show 22 jets and 14 helicopters stationed at the Hmeimim airbase, compared to 29 jets and 7 helicopters seen there in early February, said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

“All that’s really gone is the fixed wing close air support attack jets,” he said. “On the rotary side it’s a substantially more formidable force than it was.”

SPECIAL FORCES

The Ka-52, known for its unusual double set of top-mounted rotor blades and no tail rotor, is the Russian military’s official special forces support helicopter and its appearance in Syria is testament to the growing number of Russian ground troops in direct combat roles, western officials say.

Russia acknowledged having special forces in Syria for the first time shortly after its military drawdown was announced, saying they were conducting high-risk reconnaissance missions and “other special tasks”.

Since the announcement, Western diplomats say Russia’s forces have increasingly targeted Islamic State militants and an offshoot of al Qaeda. Previously Russia focused its strikes on other Assad opponents, including some viewed by the West as moderate.

Swapping jets for helicopters illustrates Russia’s new military role in the Syrian conflict, engaging directly with fighting on the ground instead of dropping bombs from thousands of feet.

“Russia’s attack helicopters are getting much more into the thick of things than their fixed wing aircraft were previously,” said de Larrinaga. “We never really saw Russian strike aircraft operating at low level like this before.”

Both the Ka-52 and Mi-28N, which is broadly equivalent to the U.S. Apache gunship, were used to provide close air cover to the Syrian army when it secured a major victory by retaking Palmyra from Islamic State militants in March.

Bronk said the helicopter deployment was in response to the changing needs of the Syrian army.

“They are no longer bombarding besieged cities so much, trying to dislodge rebels,” he said. “Instead they are trying to assist a more mobile, maneuverable style of engagement.”

“Because that tactical role or focus of Assad’s forces has changed, then the Russian support methodology needs to change along with it.”

(Writing by Jack Stubbs; editing by Peter Graff)

Putin says shares Russians economic pain

Journalists watch a live broadcast on an electronic screen showing nationwide call-in attended by Russian President Putin in Moscow

By Andrew Osborn and Alexander Winning

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin assured ordinary Russians on Thursday that he was trying to relieve the hardships inflicted on them by the slowing economy and the financial knock-on effects of Russia’s stand-off with the West.

Putin used a televised phone-in, an annual event when he fields questions from ordinary citizens around the country, to strike a conciliatory tone on foreign policy, saying Russia wanted friendly relations with the rest of the world.

Wrapping up the event after three hours and 40 minutes, Putin said he had heard a lot of impassioned questions from worried citizens. Many of the questions were about issues such as high inflation, poor public services and wage arrears.

“I share your concerns in nearly 100 percent of cases,” Putin said. “We’ll work together so that your problems are relieved.”

Addressing public concerns over the economy is crucial for the Kremlin because Russians vote in a parliamentary election in September.

The phone-in did not feature criticism directed personally at Putin. Executives at state television, which is deferential to the Kremlin, controlled who had the chance to pose questions. His critics say the phone-in is a ritual designed to mask the lack of true democracy.

But the event provided an opportunity for Putin to show he has voters’ interests at heart, in part by hauling officials over the coals for failing to protect citizens.

Putin took questions via video link from two women, Tatiana and Yelena, who said they had not been paid for months of work at a fish processing plant on a Pacific island, and that officials ignored their complaints.

The issue is a widespread one since Russia’s economy slowed, with businesses that are struggling with falling sales often delaying wages.

The Russian president, live on air, instructed his prosecutor-general to think about firing the local prosecutor for failing to act on the women’s complaints.

“I want to extend my apologies and assure you we will do everything to resolve the situation,” Putin said, addressing the two women. A few minutes later, Russian news agencies reported a criminal investigation had been launched into the fish processing plant.

EQUAL PARTNER

On foreign policy, Putin did not deploy the kind of bellicose rhetoric against the United States and its allies that he has in the past few years.

He denied that Russia was surrounded by adversaries, said he favored a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria, and said Russia wanted good ties with Turkey and Ukraine, with which relations have soured.

In return, he said, he asked that foreign powers should treat Russia as an equal partner. “They should not act from a position of strength, dictate imperial ambitions,” Putin said.

He said he did not expect that Western countries would in the near future lift the sanctions imposed over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. But he said Russia’s economy would adapt.

Asked by one questioner whom he would save if Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Ukraine’s pro-Western leader Petro Poroshenko were both drowning in front of him, Putin was uncharacteristically diplomatic.

“If someone has decided to drown, then it’s already impossible to save them. But we are of course ready to extend a helping hand, a hand of friendship, to any partner of ours that itself wants that help,” Putin said.

POCKETBOOK ISSUES

Some of the messages submitted to the phone-in were fawning. “I’m proud of my president and of Russia,” read one message from a viewer which was flashed up on a screen behind Putin. One questioner wanted to know if Putin ate porridge for breakfast.

Most of those questions which were allowed on air focused on pocket-book issues preoccupying Russians at a time when inflation has eroded consumers’ spending power and forced the government to cut spending.

Putin was asked why more money was not being spent fixing potholes in the roads of Omsk, a city in Siberia; he was asked why medicines on sale in pharmacies were so expensive; and he reassured farmers worried they would not be able to pay off their bank loans.

He delivered a spirited defense of his friend Sergei Roldugin, who, according to reports based on the so-called “Panama Papers” leaks, has a business empire involved in offshore transactions that might be linked to Putin.

He said the leaks were an effort, backed by U.S. interests, to discredit people close to the Kremlin.

“But they must understand that the issue is not about specific people, individuals, no matter what position they hold in Russia. The issue is about the country, which cannot be manipulated, which cannot be forced to act as someone wants and dance to their tune,” Putin said.

(Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs, Lidia Kelly, Dmitry Solovyov, Maria Kiselyova, Gleb Stolyarov and Anastasia Lyrchikova; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Jason Bush and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Russia Promises Revenge on Bombing of Plane

The explosion of a Russian jetliner that took off from Sinai was the result of a terrorist attack according to Russia’s chief intelligence officer, Alexander Bortnikov.  The mid-air explosion of  the Russian jetliner over the Sinai desert last month  killed all 224 people on board .“Traces of foreign explosives” were found on debris from the Airbus plane, FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov told Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin vowed to step up his country’s military campaign against Islamist militants in Syria

According to Reuters, Putin ordered the Russian navy in the eastern Mediterranean to coordinate its actions on the sea and in the air with the French navy, after the Kremlin used long-range bombers and cruise missiles in Syria and announced it would expand its strike force by 37 planes.

During a Kremlin meeting broadcasted on Tuesday, Putin addressed the Russian people.  

“The murder of our people in Sinai is among the bloodiest crimes in terms of victims. We will not wipe away the tears from our soul and hearts. This will stay with us forever but will not stop us finding and punishing the criminals.”

Putin then promised, “We will find them anywhere on the planet and punish them. Our air force’s military work in Syria must not simply be continued. It must be intensified in such a way that the criminals understand that retribution is inevitable.”

The FSB security service announced a bounty of $50 million to find those responsible and said that award would be paid out for information that helps detain persons who blew up the Russian plane in Egypt.

According to several news reports, Egyptian authorities have detained two employees of Sharm al-Sheikh airport, where the downed plane originated, for questioning, two security officials and an airport employee said on Tuesday.

Most of the A321 passengers on the doomed plane were Russian tourists flying home from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

World Leaders to Meet this Weekend to Discuss an Ending for Syrian Crisis

In the most serious effort yet, world leaders are meeting this weekend in Vienna to end the nearly 5-year-old Syrian civil war as well as discuss a Russian proposal that calls for early elections.

And while top diplomats from almost 20 countries agree that it is time to end the bloodshed in Syria, there is no clear plan for how to make that dream a reality, according to the Associated Press.

However, the Washington Post reports that there is at least a determination to end the crisis as a senior administration official stated that the world leaders plan on having rapid-fire meetings until a plan is developed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will also be attending the meeting. There are high hopes that the peace draft the Kremlin reportedly created will at least be a start to planning the end of the civil war, especially now that Russia and the U.S. are starting to see eye-to-eye on restructuring the political system in Syria, according to the Associated Press.

Some of the other countries at the meeting include Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Iran is a key ally to Russia and the Syrian regime while Saudi Arabia and the U.S. has backed Syrian opposition forces. Syria will not be included in the meeting.

Initial peace talks began in an official meeting between world leaders on October 30.

Putin uses Assad visit to talk up Kremlin role as Syrian broker

Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Alexei Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/Kremlin

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Moscow on Tuesday evening to thank Russia’s Vladimir Putin personally for his military support, in a surprise visit that underlined how Russia has become a major player in the Middle East.

It was Assad’s first foreign visit since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, and came three weeks after Russia launched a campaign of air strikes against Islamist militants in Syria that has also bolstered Assad’s forces.

The Kremlin, which said it had invited Assad to visit Moscow, kept the visit quiet until Wednesday morning, broadcasting a meeting between the two men in the Kremlin and releasing a transcript of an exchange they had.

Putin said he hoped progress on the military front would be followed by moves towards a political solution in Syria, bolstering Western hopes Moscow will use its increased influence on Damascus to cajole Assad into talking to his opponents.

Assad’s confidence is likely to be boosted by the visit, which comes as his forces wage counteroffensives in western Syria against insurgents backed by Assad’s foreign opponent, as well as Islamic State militants.

“First of all I wanted to express my huge gratitude to the whole leadership of the Russian Federation for the help they are giving Syria,” Assad told Putin.

“If it was not for your actions and your decisions the terrorism which is spreading in the region would have swallowed up a much greater area and spread over an even greater territory.”

Russian officials have repeatedly said they have no special loyalty for the Syrian leader, but his audience with Putin will be seen in the West as yet another sign the Kremlin wants Assad to be part of any political solution, at least initially.

The visit also suggests that Russia, and not longtime ally Iran, has now emerged as Assad’s most important foreign friend.

Russian state TV made the meeting its top news item, showing Assad, dressed in a dark blue suit, talking to Putin, together with the Russian foreign and defense ministers.

The Kommersant daily cited unnamed sources saying meetings between the two delegations had lasted over three hours. The Syrian presidency Twitter account said Assad and Putin held three rounds of talks – one of them a closed meeting and the other two including Russia’s foreign and defense ministers.

The Kremlin has cast its intervention in Syria, its biggest in the Middle East since the 1991 Soviet collapse, as a common sense move designed to roll back international terrorism in the face of what it says is ineffective action from Washington.

It is likely to use Assad’s visit to buttress its domestic narrative that its air campaign is just and effective and to underline its assertion that its actions show it has shaken off the Ukraine crisis to become a serious global player.

Russia has a combined force of around 50 jets and helicopters in Latakia protected by Russian marines. It also has military trainers and advisers working with the Syrian army.

Russia’s air force says it has flown over 700 sorties against more than 690 targets in Syria since Sept. 30.

Assad, who looked relaxed, emphasized how Russia was acting according to international law, praising Moscow’s political approach to the Syrian crisis which he said had ensured it had not played out according to “a more tragic scenario.”

Ultimately, he said, the resolution to the crisis was a political one.

“Terrorism is a real obstacle to a political solution,” said Assad. “And of course the whole (Syrian) people want to take part in deciding the fate of their state, and not just the leadership.”

POLITICAL SOLUTION?

Putin said Russia was ready to help find a political solution and hailed the Syrian people for standing up to the militants “almost on their own”, saying the Syrian army had notched up serious battlefield success in recent times.

Sergei Shoigu, his defense minister, said Russia’s air support had helped the Syrian army move from defense to attack, saying Moscow would continue to provide military support.

Putin said Russia had felt compelled to act in Syria because of the threat Islamist militants fighting Assad’s forces there posed to its own security.

“Unfortunately on Syrian territory there are about 4,000 people from the former Soviet Union – at a minimum – fighting government forces with weapons in their hands,” said Putin.

“We, it goes without saying, can not allow them to turn up on Russian territory after they have received battlefield experience and undergone ideological instruction.”

Positive developments on the military front in Syria would provide a basis for a long-term political solution, involving all political forces, ethnic and religious groups, said Putin.

“We are ready to make our contribution not only in the course of military actions in the fight against terrorism, but during the political process,” he said, according to the transcript released by the Kremlin.

“This will, of course, be in close contact with other world powers and with countries of the region which are interested in a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” Putin said.

Interfax news agency said Putin briefed Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan by phone about the talks. Turkey, which supports rebels trying to overthrow Assad, said the Syrian leader should have stayed in Moscow for the sake of his country.

When asked whether Assad’s own political future had been discussed, Putin’s spokesman declined to comment.

How Assad got to and back from Moscow remains a mystery.

Syria’s ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad, told Reuters Assad had traveled in a Syrian plane and had safely returned home after the meeting. But publicly available flight tracking data suggested Assad’s hosts may have laid on transport for him.

It showed an IL-76MD Russian military cargo plane flew from Syria to Moscow’s Chkalovsky military airfield on Tuesday, and that an IL-62M plane from Russia’s presidential fleet flew to Latakia, a government controlled Syrian province, that same evening.

(By Andrew Osborn; Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Ekaterina Golubkova and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Christian Lowe and Dominic Evans)

Putin Claims that Russia is Still Fighting ISIS and the U.S. is Getting in the Way

As tensions rise between the U.S. and Russia over the situation in Syria, both sides claim that their main priority is to eradicate ISIS.

U.S. officials continue to accuse Russian President Putin’s new bombing campaign in Syria is to boost the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Multiple maps have shown Russia’s targets in Syria, and the majority of targets have been key locations of U.S.-backed Syrian rebels, not ISIS. And again, Putin has brushed off these accusations.

“What we are trying to achieve is to contribute to the fight against terrorism, which is a threat to both the United States to Russia to European countries and the whole world,” Putin said at an investment conference.

Boths sides disagree on how the civil war in Syria can be resolved and how ISIS can be defeated. Russia believes al-Assad needs to remain in power while the U.S. says the Syrian president needs to step down.

Putin claimed that his administration warned the United States out of “respect” before they began using airstrikes in Syria. They also sought cooperation on targets. Washington has been reluctant to work with Russia as they fear Russia would use their coordinates to target the rebels that the U.S. does not want targeted. The Syrian rebels are also already suspicious that the U.S. is already working with Russia on attacks, and U.S. officials do not want to feed those suspicions.

The Russian president also ridiculed the U.S. over their attempt to arm the Syrian rebels with air dropped munitions. He believes that the supplies will end up in the hands of ISIS.

“The United States has recognized that it was a failure and right now they keep distributing ammunition, hardware, equipment,” Putin said. “Who will get a hold of those? And it is not a rhetorical question.”

While U.S. officials state the main priority in Syria is to defeat ISIS rather than counter Russia’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, they will be holding a third meeting with officials from the Russian Ministry of Defense via video conference on Wednesday. They hope to establish safety protocols for aircrews flying over Syria.