At a Russian air base in Syria, questions loom over Moscow’s place in the country

HMEIMIM AIR BASE, Syria  —  The Sukhoi fighter aircraft punched through the clouds, its growl echoing over Russia’s Hmeimim air base on Syria’s coast.

Abu Zaid, a bearded militant with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, cocked his ear toward the roar.

“That sound … we used to be afraid of it when those planes would bomb us in Idlib,” he said, referring to a rebel-held province that was a frequent target of Russia’s campaign in support of the now-exiled Syrian President Bashar Assad.

But this time the Russian plane wasn’t on a bombing sortie. And Abu Zaid, rather than hiding in a rebels’ bastion, was standing at Hmeimim’s gate. He was part of a group of insurgents charged with protecting Russian soldiers who a mere eight days ago were his adversaries.

A Russian aircraft takes off from Hmeimim air base.

(Leo Correa / Associated Press)

It was another sign of the seismic changes that have hit Syria, after the rebels’ blitz offensive this month swatted away Syrian army troops and removed Assad — with Moscow unable or unwilling to help its ally.

Speaking Monday from inside Hmeimim air base, a representative of Russia’s military — who refused to be named in line with military regulations — said relations with the rebels were “quite good.”

“We don’t feel unsafe with the new government,” he said, adding that Russia had been coordinating with the new authorities for the last week and hoped to maintain friendly relations with the rebels’ new government.

“We have contact with the new governmental heads so neither of us [will] make provocative moves against each other,” he said.

That was not always the case. In 2015, Russia came to Assad’s rescue, dispatching warplanes and soldiers who helped turn the tide in his favor in a civil war that began in 2011 and left more than half a million people dead.

But on Dec. 8, Damascus residents awoke to find the rebels in charge.

On Monday, Assad issued a statement saying he had initially escaped to Hmeimim and had planned to stay there and fight. But when Hmeimim came under heavy drone attacks, the Russians decided he should leave for Moscow.

The Russian military representative denied that Assad or any members of his government or family had left through Hmeimim.

A Syrian employee working in the civilian side of the airport — which lies adjacent to the base and shares runways with it — said the last planes to depart the civilian airport were on Sunday night, including 10 flights taking Iranian fighters back to Tehran.

Syrian fighters watch Russian armored vehicles driving past near Hmeimim air base in the town of Hmeimim in Syria on Monday.

(Leo Correa / Associated Press)

Assad’s departure leaves unclear Moscow’s military role in the country. The Russian presence includes not only Hmeimim, but also Syria’s sole warm-water port in the nearby coastal city of Tartous. Assad gave Russia free use of Hmeimim and Tartous in 2017 as part of a 49-year lease.

The Russian military representative said Russia’s presence would be determined by the two countries’ heads of state, adding that Russian troops have in recent days reduced their logistical footprint and pulled back from some of their far-flung bases.

Satellite image analysis company Maxar Technologies released images of Hmeimim last week depicting heavy transport planes preparing to receive cargo and attack helicopters dismantled, probably ahead of being transported.

“It’s not a withdrawal. It’s just a transfer,” the Russian official said.

On Monday, Russian convoys could be seen traversing the coastal highway to Hmeimim. Later, an An-124 heavy transport plane could be seen taking off from Hmeimim, with a KA-52 attack helicopter flying in tow.

The presence of so many Russian troops in Hmeimim had affected the nearby city of Jableh, where storefronts a few miles from the air base sported signs in Cyrillic as well as Arabic. Restaurants catered to Russian servicemen’s tastes.

Souvenir shops would also sell trinkets and ceremonial goods commemorating Russian-Syrian military cooperation. When the rebels took over, they ordered shopkeepers to destroy such merchandise, said Ali Daqouq, who owned a souvenir shop down the road from Hmeimim.

But Daqouq was reluctant to do so quite just yet.

“They told me to get rid of this stuff, but I have so much of it,” he said, gesturing toward shelves of mother-of-pearl wooden boxes with Syrian and Russian flags, and plaques with the faces of Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I figure I might as well sell what I can while the Russians are still here,” he said.