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Deputy PM: Weapons used in Syria promoted Russia to 'higher league'

The prime task was to hit the enemy hiding in bunkers and special shelters and among civilians most accurately, and Russian weapons have passed the test, Dmitry Rogozin says
Russia's Su-30SM multirole fighter aircraft at the Hmeymim airbase in Syria Alexander Yelistratov/TASS
Russia's Su-30SM multirole fighter aircraft at the Hmeymim airbase in Syria
© Alexander Yelistratov/TASS

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. Weaponry being used in Syria has promoted the Russian army to a "higher league," Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told the Rossiya-24 television channel in an interview. He promised that the gained combat experience would be thoroughly studied.

"In Syria, we’ve been able to see only part of the armed forces. We’ve seen in action our aerospace group, our aircraft, including front-line ones and those organic to the ground army units. But it is pretty clear that our armed forces have already qualified for a higher league," he said. "This is seen in the very look of our air pilots and technicians who service the hardware and in the way they use the weapons."

Rogozin said he was by no means euphoric and there was no propaganda in what he was saying.

"We have been studying the combat experience of our modern weapons in the most thorough way," Rogozin said, adding that the prime task was to hit the enemy hiding in bunkers and special shelters and among civilians most accurately. He is certain that Russian weapons have passed the test.

"Had our strikes been not as accurate as they were, heavy civilian casualties would’ve occurred. You may imagine what sort of Russophobic hue and cry we would’ve been witnesses to today. There is nothing of the kind," he said. "Why? Because we hit the bull’s eye."