'Russia, which has a naval maintenance base in Syria and whose weapons trade with Damascus is worth millions of dollars annually, joined China last month to veto a Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Assad's government.
Izvestia newspaper reported on Monday, citing retired Russian Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, that Russia plans to send its flagship aircraft carrier the "Admiral Kuznetsov" along with a patrol ship, an anti-submarine craft and other vessels.
"Having any military force apart from NATO is very beneficial for the region as it prevents the outbreak of armed conflict," Kravchenko, who was navy chief of staff from 1998-2005, was quoted as saying by Izvestia.
Returning to my own observation, this last remark seems pertinent in terms of preventing NATO doing a Libya on Syria.
By the way, how are those Libyians going, - surely no torture or random extra-judicial killings going on? Democracy in bloom, or new power-brokers that the US can manage taking charge? Haven't seen Hillary crying on TV about it so it must be going ok.
Nothing in the paper, we're busy pretending we are superior, consumed with facebook concerning the 'Kony' campaign.
Apparently, the 30 year civil-war that followed Idi Amin's lunatic regime (see Punch) can be solved by the Twitterist pursuit of a single war-lord heading the LRA - the Lord's Revolutionary Army, for heaven's sake).
Russian officials say the naval base at Tartus is used for repairs to ships from its Black Sea fleet and Izvestia said about 600 Russian Defense Ministry employees worked there.
Russia said it lost of tens of billions of dollars in potential arms deals with Muammar Gaddafi's fall and is loathe to lose another customer in the region. Syria accounted for 7 percent of Russia's total of $10 billion in arms deliveries abroad in 2010, according to CAST.
