Getting your player ready...
MOSCOW — Two Russian navy ships are completing preparations to sail to Syria with a unit of marines to protect Russian citizens and the nation’s base there, a news report said Monday. The deployment appears to reflect concern about Syrian President Bashar Assad’s future.
The Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified Russian navy official as saying that the two amphibious landing vessels, Nikolai Filchenkov and Caesar Kunikov, will be heading to the Syrian port of Tartus. The official didn’t give a precise date.
Interfax also quoted a deputy Russian air force chief as saying that Russia will give the necessary protection to its citizens in Syria. “We won’t abandon the Russians,” Maj.-Gen. Vladimir Gradusov was quoted as saying.
