A top Russian delegation arrived in Damascus on Tuesday for the first time since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government last month, as Russia looks to negotiate the future of its military bases in Syria with the country’s new leadership.
Among the diplomats to arrive in the Syrian capital on Tuesday were Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, who oversees Middle Eastern affairs, and the special presidential envoy to Syria, Aleksandr Lavrentiev, the Russian state news agency TASS reported.
The Syrian rebels who toppled Mr. al-Assad last month fought for years against government forces backed by Russia, but their interim leader has suggested he wants to continue Syria’s relationship with Moscow, given the historical linkages and overlapping geopolitical interests.
Ahmed al-Shara, the leader of the rebel coalition that ousted Mr. Assad, called Russia “an important country” in an interview with the Saudi Arabian state television channel Al Arabiya last month. He said he did not want Russia to leave Syria “in the way that some wish.”
“We don’t want Russia to exit Syria in a way that undermines its relationship with our country,” Mr. al-Shara said, noting that Syria depended on Russia for all its weapons and to manage many of its power plants.
Mr. al-Shara’s Islamist rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has been branded a terrorist organization by both Russia and the United States. But leaders from Moscow and the West have reached out to him, amid a broader scramble for geopolitical influence in postwar Syria.
Russia has two main military bases in the country: the Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean Sea, which dates to the Soviet era, and the Khmeimim air base near Latakia, which Russian forces set up in 2015 to help Moscow back Mr. al-Assad in the civil war. Russian forces also established smaller outposts across the country.
Having to close the bases would be a serious blow to Russia’s ambitions of maintaining a military foothold in the Middle East and exerting influence in the Mediterranean.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has extended asylum to Mr. al-Assad in Moscow, said during his annual call-in show last month that Russia must consider what to do about its bases in Syria, now that the country is under new leadership.
“We must think about this, because we must decide for ourselves how our relations will develop with those political forces that currently control and will control the situation in this country,” Mr. Putin said.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said in an interview with a Russian state media outlet in late December that he expected the new rebel leadership would bring changes to arrangements about the bases.
“Undoubtedly, the change of power and the changes on the ground will make certain adjustments to Russia’s military presence in Syria,” Mr. Lavrov said. “This includes not only continued deployment of our bases or strongholds, but also the terms of their operation, maintenance and support, and the interaction with local authorities.”
He said those issues could be the subject of negotiations with the new Syrian leadership.
