Skip to footer

Russia confirms military supplies to Syria. What's next?

The Russian foreign ministry says that their supply of arms to Syria has been an open secret for years.

|
Ivan Sekretarev/AP Photo/File
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shakes hands with Qadri Jamil, left, former deputy prime minister representing Syria's opposition Popular Front of Change and Liberation, during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 31, 2015.
  • By Staff The Associated Press

| Moscow

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has accused the West of creating "strange hysteria" over Russian activities in Syria, saying that Moscow has been openly supplying weapons and sending military specialists to Syria for a long time.

The U.S. has expressed concern about signs of a Russian military build-up in Syria, including possible preparations for sending in troops.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zhakarova told journalists Wednesday that "Russia has never made a secret of its military-technical cooperation with Syria." And she could "confirm and repeat once again that Russian military specialists are in Syria to help them master the weapons being supplied."

President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials also have confirmed in recent days that Russia has military experts in Syria to train its military on how to use Russian-supplied weapons.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Russia confirms military supplies to Syria. What's next?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0909/Russia-confirms-military-supplies-to-Syria.-What-s-next
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe