Tel Aviv. The fast expanding military presence of Russia in Syria may soon become a clash point between Moscow and Washington.

Syria is fully controlled by Russia and all signs point to a Russian intention to turn this war torn country into a huge Russian base in the West Asia.

The Russian Air Force has deployed its Su-57 fighter aircraft to its Khmemim air base near Latakia.
The Russian military is already upgrading the runway at Khmemim so that it can accommodate the takeoffs and landings of strategic bombers that can carry nuclear weapons.

Khmemim air base is fully operated by the Russians and they deploy there different types of fighter aircraft.
Israeli sources told Raksha Anirveda that Syria has become “an extension” of Russia in the West Asia without any real reaction from the US.

Ari Heistein, a researcher in the institute for national security studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, says that under President Trump, the United States did not have a coherent and unified Russia policy. “Congress maintained a traditional approach of using sanctions to push back against the Kremlin’s malign activity, while the White House prioritized (an ultimately unsuccessful) cultivation of interpersonal relations with President Putin to improve bilateral ties and provide the US an advantage in the competition with China.”

According to Heistein, under President Biden, the gaps on Russia policy between the executive and legislative branches are expected to narrow, but the relationship between the two states will hardly become less complex. In an era of increased US-Russia hostility, Moscow could opt to calibrate the degree of friction with Israel in Syria for use as leverage against Washington, or the US may grow less tolerant of Israel’s coordination with Russia along the northern front.

The Russian force in Syria numbers about 5,000 soldiers and officers and about a hundred aircraft, along with a fleet of about 10 to 15 vessels. Since Russian involvement in Syria, more than a hundred Russian soldiers and another hundred mercenaries have been killed, but this figure appears to be much higher and the Russians are trying to hide the true death toll.

The researcher says that from the Russian airbases in Syria, Russia embarks on attack missions to aid the regime but at the same time also maintains a presence vis-à-vis Western countries in the eastern Mediterranean.

-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist