Moscow tries to cover up the loss of al-Assad in Syria

As most of the world cherished(opens in a new tab) the ending of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria on Sunday 8 December, Moscow saw it differently.

Speaking(opens in a new tab) in Qatar at the Doha Forum on 7 December, Foreign Minister Lavrov was quick to blame the US and its NATO allies for a global hegemonic plot(opens in a new tab).

Given Kremlin’s long-term backing of the brutal dictatorship, the official Russian line deployed(opens in a new tab) on all main state outlets was not to give it prominent coverage, but if mentioning the topic to stick with the usual practice of blaming the US as the mastermind behind the events. Pro-Kremlin mouthpieces also took the opportunity to push disinformation claiming that Ukrainian forces were instrumental in military and drone support to terrorist groups.

Up until the night of 7 December, Russia state outlets insisted(opens in a new tab) on the so-called Astana-format of negotiations (Russia, Iran, Turkiye) to manage developments in Syria. This format is now recognised by Putin’s spokesperson as lost.

During the weekend, Russian state actors and pro-Kremlin outlets tried to cover up Putin’s embarrassing failure in Syria with disinformation narratives spread across all available language platforms including Russian, Arabic, French, English and several others. Besides US and Ukraine, the deceptive narratives claimed, Israel could be behind as well as other unnamed ‘foreign forces’. As usual, Ukraine got plenty of blame, in particular for allegedly training and fighting with jihadists.