The Admiral Chabanenko and three landing craft have left their home port of Severomorsk in the Arctic Circle on their way to the Mediterranean where they will be joined by the Russian patrol ship Yaroslav Mudry as well as an assistance vessel, a military source told the agency. "The program of the voyage includes a call in the Syrian port of Tartus," the unnamed source told the news agency.
Russia has been bitterly criticized by the West for failing to cut military ties with Syria despite the conflict between the regime and opposition rebels that has claimed about 17,000 lives in the 16-month uprising.
Russia also said it wanted to host a new meeting of foreign powers on the Syria crisis but stressed that the talks should not decide Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad's
Despoiler of Deraa...
fate.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov also said the attempt in Geneva to save Kofi Annan's
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...peace plan needed to be continued with the involvement of countries such as Iran, which both Washington and European powers strongly oppose.
Moscow Denies Reports about Russian Warships Sailing into Syria
(SANA)-An informed source at the Russian Foreign Ministry Tuesday denied reports of some media that Russian warships sailed into Syria, expressing astonishment at the attempts of stirring up this issue again."Simply, it is ridiculous what occurs in the mass media of rumors about alleged sailing of Russian ships that carry landing units into Syria," the source stated, clarifying that Russia has nothing to hide.
" Russian Defense Ministry announced that a number of the North Sea fleet ships left Severomorsk Navy and sailed into the north part of the Atlantic Ocean to run regular trainings that have no relation to the events in Syria." The source said.
It added that in spite of the noise about the Russian ships, no one talks about the maneuvers of the Western States' fleets in the region.