'Misión cumplida' en Siria a un coste increíble

Is this Vladimir Putin’s “mission accomplished” moment? In a surprise move, the Russian president announced on Monday that he was ordering the withdrawal of what he called “the main part” of the Russian military contingent from Syria, declaring that “the task put before … the Russian military has, on the whole, been fulfilled.” Mr Putin also called for an intensification of the diplomatic process, which, following two weeks of relative quiet in the Syrian conflict, also resumed on Monday.

But what has Moscow’s intervention actually accomplished? And what will happen once Russian forces have withdrawn? The most important and immediate effect of the military intervention has been to bolster the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which bears major responsibility for the carnage inflicted on the Syrian people. Keeping Mr Assad in power—and maintaining Russia’s military presence in Syria — was always the primary reason for the campaign.

But this “success,” if we can call it that, has come at an amazing cost. The Assad regime’s brutal tactics — ranging from dropping barrel bombs on civilian populations to using chemical weapons—have left close to half a million dead and more than half the population of 22m Syrians displaced from their homes. Yet, far from curtailing the atrocities, Russia’s five-month long intervention only intensified the violence, including the indiscriminate bombing of opposition forces and the denial of food and medicine to people in need.

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Putin anunció la "retirada" de sus tropas, pero seguirá con los bombardeos en Siria