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Russian Airborne Troops may get to Syria if President issues order

The second condition is coordination of all the issues with the UN Security Council
Photo ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Smirnov
Photo ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Smirnov

MOSCOW, August 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s Airborne Troops may go to Syria if the Russian President expresses political will for this and all the issues related to a possible mission are coordinated at the UN Security Council, the commander of the troops, Colonel-General Vladimir Shamanov said Thursday.

“For our units to be able to get there, it’s important to observe two conditions,” he said. “Number one is the Russian President’s political will and number two is coordination of all the issues with the UN Security Council.”

“The Security Council documents say its permanent members don’t have the right to send their military contingents to the zones of conflicts of medium intensity and high intensity,” Gen Shamanov said.

He recalled in this connection that one of the jobs the Airborne Troops have been entrusted with is to evacuate the diplomats and personnel of Russian embassies from crises-stricken areas if need be.

Gen Shamanov said the Airborne Troops took part in the evacuation of staff-members from the Russian embassy in Kabul after the Talebs had seized state power in Afghanistan.

“The Airborne Troops have a duty to be prepared for the solution of tasks like that. For this purpose, each of our units has a battalion-level tactical group, and in the future each enlarged unit will have a reconnaissance battalion and they’ll be in charge of performing embassy staff evacuation jobs,” he said.