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Russia, in cooperation with the main rebel faction that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime, has evacuated at least 400 soldiers from the Damascus region in recent days, an official with the group said.
Kamal Lababidi, a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s political bureau, told the Financial Times that the soldiers had been stationed at the headquarters of the notorious Syrian army’s 4th Division in Qudsaya on the outskirts of the capital.
Labavidi, who uses a long-held pseudonym, said Russian soldiers stationed at the Damascus embassy also left last week and talks were underway to evacuate more soldiers across the country.
The future of Russia’s presence in rebel-run Syria is unclear. Moscow has deployed troops to support ally Assad during the civil war, but the exodus from Damascus is the latest sign that Moscow’s presence is shrinking.
The evacuation also points to early signs of cooperation between Moscow and HTS after years of fighting on opposite sides of a brutal conflict.
Labavidi, who negotiated the retreat on the Syrian side, said a Russian military mission met HTS this week at the rebels’ de facto headquarters at the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus to negotiate the convoy’s safe passage.
“The Russians came, but only to coordinate the retreat of the base,” Labavidi said.
He said Russian forces left Damascus in convoys overland to Moscow’s Hmeimim air base in northwestern Syria. From there, planes took the soldiers back to Russia.
In a video provided to the FT, about 100 military vehicles, including armored vehicles, tractors, fuel tanks, and mobile medical units, were captured leaving the Damascus area.
There are no plans to close the embassy, but Labavidi said Russian officials told him there would be less diplomatic activity.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday it had evacuated some staff from Damascus and the city’s delegation from Abkhazia, a breakaway Caucasus state whose independence has been recognized by five countries – North Korea, Belarus and Georgia.
According to RIA Novosti, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs only stated that “work at the Russian Embassy in Damascus is ongoing.”
Russia has intervened in the civil war since 2015, deploying thousands of troops and extensive air support and shifting the direction of the conflict in Assad’s favor until a lightning strike by rebels this month. Assad fled to Moscow.
Russia has said its future in Syria depends on negotiations with the new government in Damascus. During the attack, HTS signaled a willingness to cooperate with Moscow, saying the two could find common ground in rebuilding the country.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said this week that Russia was engaging in constructive talks with HTS and hoped to maintain a foothold in the fight against terrorism.
Losing Hmeimim in Tartus and the naval base in Moscow would be a strategic problem. That’s because both locations serve as logistics hubs for Russian activities in the Mediterranean and operations across Africa.
Analysts have suggested that in return for maintaining the base, Russia could provide political support as well as money, energy and minerals to the new Syrian government.
Satellite images from Hmeimim show a recent increase in ground vehicles, the arrival of heavy transport aircraft, Russian helicopters and the dismantlement of air defenses, all consistent with the drawdown.
Asked about the future of the base, Labavidi said Russia was not currently evacuating Hmeimim, but rather withdrawing personnel from other bases there.
Several prominent Syrian families close to the Assad regime have also been holed up in the Russian embassy in Damascus under Moscow’s protection since the regime fell a week ago, three people with direct knowledge told the FT.
Several HTS fighters guarding the embassy perimeter on Sunday said they were stationed there to protect people inside the diplomatic mission and did not restrict their movements.
Russian embassy officials sometimes asked them to accompany them and act as guards when they went out on errands, the fighters said. The car was leaving the building to buy groceries and visit the doctor.
But Labavidi said Moscow had been instructed by the new Syrian government not to facilitate the departure of Syrians.
