The future fate of Russia's two military bases in Syria—the Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean coast and the Khmeimim Air Base near the port city of Latakia—is still a big unknown in the wake of the collapse of the Assad government.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has since said that Moscow is currently in direct contact with the political committee of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which holds Damascus and major cities, as Moscow aims to keep its military bases within Syria.
Since the HTS takeover of Damascus there have been no reported incidents of Russian troops or the bases coming under fire; however, troops are on high alert.
Huge Russian armored and troop convoys have been seen withdrawing from the capital area and some other parts of Syria, headed to the safety of Hmeimim airbase in Latakia province.
Negotiations with the new leaders in Damascus for Russia's bases to be maintained appear to be ongoing. Several videos have emerged showing significant amounts of Russian equipment being moved to the coast, and presumably being readied for evacuation.
The base at Tartus has long been Russia's only Mediterranean naval port, which goes back to Soviet times and Moscow's decades long relationship with the Assad's, going back to President Hafez al-Assad.
But now even as negotiations over the future continues, Russia's military appears to be quickly packing up the bases. According to Al Jazeera on Friday:
The images taken on Friday show what appear to be at least two Antonov AN-124s, one of the world’s largest cargo planes, with their nose cones open at the Hmeimim airbase in Syria’s coastal Latakia province.
“Two An-124 heavy transport aircraft are at the airfield – both with their nose cones lifted and prepared to load equipment/cargo,” Maxar said. “Nearby, a Ka-52 attack helicopter is being dismantled and likely prepared for transport while elements of an S-400 air defense unit are similarly preparing to depart from its previous deployment site at the air base.”
Earlier, our colleagues on the ground reported that hundreds of armored vehicles flying Russian flags are travelling on the Damascus-Homs highway towards the Syrian coast.
They added that Russian forces in central and southern Syria gathered in Qudssaya near Damascus before the fall of the regime and are now withdrawing to the Khmeimim airbase and the port of Tartous.
Starting in 2015 President Assad had formally asked his Russian ally Putin to intervene militarily in Syria against the jihadist 'rebels' - as by then the crisis was clearly a full-blown proxy war for regime change backed by the West.
That's when Russian planes and assets rapidly increased their deployments to Khmeimim, and Russia has also for years been flexing its naval might by staging drills in the eastern Mediterranean. With Assad gone and now given asylum in Moscow, Russia is likely to divert these military assets to the Ukraine war.