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In reply to the discussion: Pic Of The Moment: Current Events Quiz: Understanding President Obama's Syria Speech [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)Syria is a client of Putin. Syria will do what Putin says if they want to keep receiving armaments from Pootie's "MIC" to prosecute their civil war.
Putin wants to retain his place to stash/resupply his warships in the Med....or, if the shit really goes wobbly, a place from which to evacuate the tens of thousands of Russians engaged in this work and that if al-Assad falls and the Sunnis take over (the Sunnis won't hesitate to play the ransom game, and they set the prices high).
Should Pootie need a place to stage a non-combatant evacuation operation, Tartus has been dredged to accommodate their deep water cruiser-carrier that can move a lot of people in a hurry, plus, there are a number of civilian piers that can accommodate Russian destroyers and other smaller craft.