Russian Aircraft Carrier Admiral Kuznetsov

21/08/2008 DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that a powerful Russian naval contingent, led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, left Murmansk on the Barents Sea Aug. 18 to dock at the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus Saturday, Aug. 23. It includes the Russian Navy’s biggest missile cruiser Moskva and at least four nuclear missile submarines.
 
ASSAD SAYS RUSSIAN ONSLAUGHT ON GEORGIA JUSTIFIED
Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday Russia's military onslaught on Georgia was justified, news agencies reported.
"I want to voice support for Russia over the situation around Abkhazia and South Ossetia... We understand the essence of the Russian position and consider its military reaction a response to provocation by the Georgian side," Assad told President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting, ITAR-TASS reported.
Assad said Russia had shown "courage" by agreeing to withdraw its troops after the operation -- a promise that Georgia and the West say has yet to be fulfilled.
"We value Russia's courage in responding to international initiatives and deciding to withdraw its forces," Interfax quoted Assad as saying at the start of talks at the Russian leader's Black Sea coastal residence in Sochi.
 
ASSAD SAYS SYRIA READY IN PRINCIPLE TO DEPLOY RUSSIAN MISSILE SYSTEM
Earlier on Wednesday, the Syrian President announced that Damascus was ready to consider deploying Russian Iskander missile systems in its territory, in response to the US missile shield in Europe.

 
In an interview with the Russian paper Kommersant, cited by the Interfax News Agency, Assad said regarding the option to install Rusian missiles on Syrian ground "In principle, yes. We have not thought of it yet. No such proposal has been received. In any case, all similar projects must be first studied by military experts. And when everything is decided, we will make an open and public announcement," Assad said in the interview, published on Wednesday, the day before his visit to Russia was scheduled to begin.
 
The Iskander missile (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) is a short range, solid fuel propelled, theater quasi-ballistic missile system.
 
The system is intended to use conventional warheads for the engagement of small and area targets, such as hostile fire weapons (missile systems, multiple launch rocket systems, long-range artillery pieces), air and antimissile defense weapons, especially those located in relatively fixed sites, command posts and communications nodes, critical civilian infrastructure facilities and other vital small and area targets.
 

The Qatari-based Al Wattan quoted Syrian sources as saying the meeting would deal with the crisis in Georgia and with the importance of the strategic alliance between Damascus and Moscow, which, the sources said, "has always been a stabilizing factor in the Middle East."
 
Al Wattan analysts assessed that during Assad's present visit, as in the past, Russia and Syria would sign deals for the sale of advanced weapons. The sources quoted by the paper said Syria's interest in the Russian-Georgian conflict grew "following the surprising discoveries of the dangerous role Israel played in transferring weapons to Georgia and the involvement of Israeli Mossad in carrying out terror attacks against Russian citizens in South Ossetia and Abkhazia."