MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. US and British special services are plotting a series of terrorist attacks on Russia’s military bases in Syria, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) press office said on Saturday.
"British intelligence agencies are working out plans to stage a series of terrorist attacks on the Russian military facilities in Syria. The plans envisage using militants of the ISIL terrorist group (the former name of the Islamic State terrorist group, IS, outlawed in Russia - TASS), recently released from prisons by the new authorities," the press office said in a statement.
According to the information available to the SVR, following the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the outgoing US administration and the British leadership are aiming to prevent the situation in that country from stabilizing.
"In a broader sense, they are pursuing the goal of maintaining a state of chaos in the Middle East," the press office added.
"Washington and London presume that in such conditions they will be able to achieve more quickly their geopolitical goal of ensuring their long-term dominance in the region on the basis of a repulsive concept of the rules-based order. These intentions, however, are prevented by Russia’s military presence on the Mediterranean coast of Syria that has been a significant factor of regional stability until now," it said.
Representatives of the British Mi6 Military Intelligence Service and the US Central Intelligence Agency have recently assigned their controlled IS ringleaders in Syria with staging a series of attacks on the Russian military bases. The terrorists have received strike UAVs to accomplish this dirty work, the SVR said.
"For the purposes of concealing their complicity in planned raids by IS militants, the US and UK military commands have handed down orders to their Air Forces to continue delivering strikes on IS positions, about which they inform militants in advance," it said.
"London and Washington expect that such provocations will prompt Russia to evacuate its military personnel from Syria. Simultaneously, the new Syrian authorities will be accused of their inability to control radicals," the press office said.
"This approach by the Anglo-Saxons who declare their commitment to stabilization and building 'a democratic Syria' vividly shows their true attitude to that country and its people. This can also be seen in the continued occupation by the US Armed Forces - under the pretext of the fight against the IS - of oil-bearing districts east of the Euphrates River, which Washington has no intention to return to Damascus," the press office stressed.