The Syrian civil war, which erupted in March 2011, has officially logged a decade of torment into the Levantine country’s history. Fallout from ongoing conflict is forcing key backers of the Bashar al-Assad regime to reconsider the performance and governance of their ally.
Russia, after having invested heavily in keeping the regime in power, started questioning how its ally had run the country during difficult times.
A Syrian-Russian communication channel was set up by Damascus in cooperation with former diplomat Rami al-Shaar, who is known for his far-reaching connections at the Russian foreign ministry and staunch supporter of the regime.
Shaar was tasked with mobilizing Russian backing of Damascus.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, he recounted how he was contacted by a senior official from the regime in 2013.
Without naming the official, he said they made it clear that the regime wanted to gather more support inside Russia.
Working together, Shaar and the official exchanged over 40 letters with Russian officials.
Shaar also admitted to visiting Moscow around 20 times to ensure the channel was running and promote communication with Damascus.
After reviewing some of the correspondence between Moscow and Damascus, Asharq Al-Awsat discovered that the bulk of the letters focused on battleground developments and regime plans to retake control of Syrian territories.
Damascus has also made a number of direct distress calls to Moscow.
Russian letters, however, centered around requests for Damascus showing flexibility in negotiations with the Syrian opposition to reinforce Moscow’s efforts in finding a political settlement for the war-torn country.
“We hope that you will respond to the efforts exerted by Russia for reviving dialogue between you (the Syrian regime) and all components of the opposition,” read one of the letters sent by Moscow on December 5, 2014.
