Publication

This report uses open source/social media materials to examine Russia’s campaign in Syria, particularly how the reality on the ground has matched the claims made about it by Moscow. The text's authors conclude that Russia’s policy in Syria was basically to distract, deceive, and destroy. That is to say, the buildup that led up to the Russian air campaign distracted the West’s and Russian people’s attention away from Moscow's Ukrainian operations and the buildup of its overall forces in Syria. The official campaign reports then deceived the world about the air mission’s true goals, which were to support the Assad regime while targeting its opponents. Finally, the operation destroyed the capabilities of the only credible non-jihadist alternative to Assad’s regime, including those elements directly backed by the West. The authors close their analysis by suggesting that the above approach followed the pattern first played out in Ukraine and that the Putin regime might just follow it again.