The upside of the situation following the airstrikes of the US-led coalition on Syria under a false pretext is that both the coalition and Russia, allied with the Syrian government, have managed to keep restraint, writes Vitaly Naumkin, Academic Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, in his comments for valdaiclub.com.

       Also, the airstrikes’ results are a victory for Russia in a sense, he writes. “The Russian-made air defense systems supplied to Syria have demonstrated their efficiency. Possibly, based on agreements we can only divine, our military did not have to get involved in the hostilities and employ the state-of-the-art air defense systems S-300 and S-400. Miraculously, the airstrikes led to no casualties not only among the Russian military and civilian specialists, but also among Syrian soldiers. However, they did cause exaltation among the opposition fighters who hope to repeat the false flag operation involving chemical weapons, which would push Washington and its allies to launch a new military campaign.”

       Read the full version of Vitaly Naumkin’s article.

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