Russia–Syria Relations

Russia–Syria relations (; ) are the bilateral relations between Russia and Syria. Russia has an embassy in Damascus and Syria has an embassy in Moscow. Russia enjoys a historically strong, stable, and friendly relationship with Syria, as it did with most countries within the Arab World up until the Arab Spring. Russia's only Mediterranean naval base for its Black Sea Fleet is located in the Syrian port city of Tartus. Today the relationship is unclear after Fall of the Assad regime, Russia was allowed to keep their bases in Syria.

Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the First Syrian Republic were established in July 1944, and an agreement was signed in February 1946 ensuring Soviet support for Syrian independence ahead of the evacuation of French troops in April 1946. During World War II, both countries found themselves on the Allied side, fighting against the Axis powers.

In 1971, under an agreement with President Hafez al-Assad, the Soviet Union opened its naval military base in Tartus,International New York Times, 3 October 2015. a facility the former Soviet republic continues to use to this day. On 8 October 1980, Syria and the Soviet Union signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. The treaty runs for twenty years and has automatic five-year extensions unless one of the parties terminates the agreement. It provides for regular consultations on bilateral and multilateral issues of interest, coordination of responses in the event of a crisis, and military cooperation, and remains in force to this day. In January 1992, the Syrian government recognized the Russian Federation as the legal successor to the Soviet Union.

Russia in 2011 and 2012 used its veto power in the United Nations Security Council against resolutions promoted by Western and Arab countries with the intention of preventing possible sanctions or military intervention against the Syrian government, and Russia continued supplying large amounts of arms that Syria's government had earlier contracted to buy and which were used to fight Western-backed rebels. On 30 September 2015, Russia began a military intervention in the Syrian Civil War in support of the Syrian government, consisting of intensive air and cruise missile strikes against several terrorist groups, including ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda's official affiliate in Syria).

In February 2022, the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad announced that Syria supports the decision of its ally Russia to recognise the two breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. In March 2022, Syria was the only Middle Eastern country (and one of 5 countries in the world) to vote against United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-11/1, denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and demanding a full withdrawal of Russian forces. On 29 June 2022, Syria announced that it will recognize the "independence and sovereignty" of the two breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. On 20 July 2022, Syria announced its formal breaking of diplomatic ties with Ukraine, in response to a similar move by Ukraine.

When the Assad regime collapsed on 8 December 2024, Assad fled to Russia to seek asylum while Russian troops began to pull back from the country.

History

Before 1944

In 1893, the Russian Empire established a consular office in Damascus, then a part of Ottoman Syria. Following the October Revolution (1917), and the creation of the Soviet Union (1922), the Russian presence in Syria came to an end, which continued during the French Mandate period (1923−1946). Although the Soviet Union did not play a political role in the region, it did promote the establishment of the Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party in 1924.

1944–1958

Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Syria were established in July 1944. The Soviet Union commenced to take an interest in the Middle East after the Second World War. The two countries signed a secret agreement on 1 February 1946, with the Soviet envoy to Syria and Lebanon Daniel Solod as a signatory for the USSR, in which the Soviet Union agreed to provide military help in the formation of the Syrian Arab Army and prescribed Soviet diplomatic and political support in the international arena. The Soviet Union demonstrated its commitment to this treaty with Andrey Vyshinsky's 15 February 1946 address to the United Nations Security Council calling for the removal of British and French troops from the country. The last French troops were removed from Syria on 17 April 1946. During the Cold War (1947–1991) a stronger political bond developed, and Syria was considered an ally of the Soviet Union in opposition to the Western powers.

In 1949, after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Syria experienced a number of military coups and the rise of the Ba'ath Party. Three coups d'état occurred by 1953, ushering in military dictatorships twice in the process. A non-aggression pact was signed on 10 April 1950 further cementing Soviet–Syrian ties. During the Cold War period, each conflict and war that broke out in the Middle East acted as a factor leading Syria to form closer ties with the Soviet Union. Following the military coup d’état of 25 February 1954, the Ba'ath Party came to the fore in Syrian politics.

The West-inspired Baghdad Pact (1955), with its ultimately unsuccessful formation of the Central Treaty Organization, brought Soviet–Syria relations closer diplomatically. In early 1956, Syria made an arms deal with the USSR. After that, in 1956, various teams of Syrians went to the Eastern Bloc countries of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the USSR for arms, artillery, and Mig-17 training courses for pilots and ground crew. Many Syrian officers and NCOs also underwent courses led by Czechoslovak instructors in Egypt beginning in March 1956, including training for 122-mm cannons, SU-100 anti-tank guns, and T-34 tanks, among other weaponry. Meanwhile, teams from Eastern Bloc countries came to Syria to provide training to the Syrian military. Syrians, however, perceived this agreement as a pact against themselves. Indeed, among the consequences of the Baghdad Pact was not only a deepening of Syrian relations with the Soviet Union but also an alignment of Middle Eastern countries into allied satellites of the Eastern and Western blocs.

The response of the Soviet Union to the Suez Crisis (late October 1956) – threatening to use 'destructive weapons' against Britain and France – increased Soviet prestige in the Middle East. The Syrian President, then in the USSR, requested the Soviet government to intervene and send its pilots to increase the morale of the Arabs. Syrian Foreign Minister, in a talk with Soviet Foreign Minister, even requested the Soviet Union to deploy two squadron of planes along with their pilots after the Suez Crisis.

Soviet aid to Syria accelerated and included military and economic agreements. Between 1955 and 1958, Syria received about $294 million from the Soviet Union for military and economic assistance. Simultaneously, the Ba'ath Party in Syria increased its power and influence, culminating in the 1963 military coup which established a one-party Ba'athist state in Syria. The far-left neo-Ba'athist factions that dominated the Syrian Ba'ath pursued close alliance with Soviet Union. Following the Sixth National Congress in 1963, the party publicly adopted the doctrine of ideological alliance with the Socialist Bloc:

"The Arab Socialist Ba'th Party had placed the question of the struggle against imperialism in its international and human framework and considered the socialist camp a positive, active force in the struggle against imperialism... a homeland crushed and exploited by imperialism render the fundamental starting points of the socialist camp more harmonious with the interests of our Arab homeland and more in sympathy with our Arab people."

1966–2010

The Syrian ''coup d'état'' of February 1966 gave the Soviet Union the opportunity to further support Syria. A new ''coup d’état'' in 1970, called the Corrective Movement, brought Hafez al-Assad to power in Syria on 13 November 1970.

In 1971, under an agreement with President Hafez al-Assad, the Soviet Union was allowed to open its naval military base in Tartus, giving the Soviet Union a stable presence in the Middle East. Thousands of Syrian military officers and educated professionals studied in Russia during al-Assad's presidency (1971–2000).

During the Yom Kippur War, thousands of Soviet advisors and technicians assisted the Syrian army, and 20 are believed to have died. 3,750 tonnes of aid was airlifted during the war to Syria. At the end of October 1973, the Soviet Union sealifted 63,000 tonnes, mainly to Syria to replace its losses during the war.

Nevertheless, relations with Syria became strained in 1976, as the Soviets were displeased by Assad's military involvement in Lebanon. A rift between the countries emerged, as the Soviets worried about a high risk of confrontation between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Assad regime, which were both Moscow clients. Indeed, the Soviet Union had promptly offered its resources both to Syria and to the PLO and did not approve the possibility of seeing two of its commercial partners confronting themselves on the ground, despite the existing hostility between Hafez al Assad and the PLO's leader Yasser Arafat. The Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's request for the retreat was accommodated not without agitation. Moscow had frozen weapons supplies, whereas Syria had denied Soviets the access to its naval bases. It took more than two years to see a thaw in Syrian-Soviet relations when the Arab country went through dire economic conditions and turned to Moscow for help. Again, Assad's main concern was represented by Israel. Indeed, the peace sought and achieved with Egypt posed the Jewish State to exercise more pressure on Syria. These conditions created solid grounds for further closeness to the Soviets.

In April 1977, Hafez al-Assad visited Moscow and met with Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin among others, as a sign of improved Syrian relations with the USSR. Relevantly, Assad distanced himself from the widespread Arab opinion denouncing the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. On the contrary, he refused to condemn the act and tightened its relationship with Moscow. In October 1980, Syria and the Soviet Union signed a twenty-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. Throughout the 1980s, till the end of Cold War, thousands of Soviet military personnel were present in Syria, and the bulk of Syrian weapons came from the USSR and its allies North Korea, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

Between 27 and 29 April 1987, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, along with the Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass and Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, visited the Soviet Union, when he asked to acquire the S-300 missile system, but Mikhail Gorbachev refused to deliver, due to U.S. and Israeli rejection and Syrian accumulated debt from previous arms deals. On 6 July 1999, Assad visited Moscow to finalize an arms deal worth $2 billion.

Syria recognized the newly formed Russian Federation on 26 December 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Hafez al-Assad died on 10 June 2000 and was succeeded on 10 July 2000 by his son Bashar al-Assad, who was elected President by referendum in which he ran unopposed, garnering 97.29% of the vote.

On 10 May 2010, Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian president to visit Syria.

Syrian Civil War (2011–present)

During the Syrian civil war which began in 2011, Russia with China in February 2012 voted against a formal UN Security Council condemnation of the Bashar al-Assad government for alleged attacks on civilians in the city of Homs.

In September 2018, Russia announced free military education for Syrian children, with enrolment being on a competitive basis and candidates being chosen by Syria. The decision was implemented on 20 October 2018. The first batch of 8 Syrian children reached St. Petersburg in August.

On 30 November, a new rebel coalition, spearheaded by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), carried out a surprise attack, across Syria over 11 days, sweeping through major cities on the way to conquer Syria and overthrowing Assad regime. This significant development faced minimal resistance from the Syrian army.

At first, the rebels took control of Syria's largest city Aleppo. The seismic move made Syrian and Russian jets struck rebel forces in Aleppo and Idlib, but opposition groups captured a second key city, Hama, and swiftly moved toward Homs, which serves as the gateway to the capital, Damascus. As Homs fell, rebels encircled and marched into Damascus.

Post-Assad Regime

On 8 December, Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow and was granted political asylum by the Russian government. On 9 December, the Syrian embassy in Russia raised the new opposition flag. Although the Russian troops began to pull out of Syria, much of the equipment was relocated to Libya while the future of the bases located in Syria were not under current discussion. On 29 December, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said Syria and Russia share strategic interests, and that "We do not want Russia to depart in a manner unbefitting its longstanding relationship with our country". He added that Syria's weapons were from Russia, and many power plants were managed by Russians, and that Syria did not want Russia to leave in the way that some wish.

On 28 January 2025, Syrian de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told Syrian diplomats that Damascus sought the extradition of Syria's former president, Bashar-al Assad. On 29 January, a Russian delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov visited Damascus to meet Ahmed al-Sharaa, reaffirming Moscow's support for Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity following the fall of the Assad regime. On 12 February, Syrian President al-Sharaa held a phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin, in what was the latter's first contact with a Syrian head of state since Assad' overthrow.

In February 2025, former rebel forces now part of the ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Islamist government, controlled access to Russia’s Hmeimim Air Base and Tartous Naval Base. Syria’s new leadership seeks to renegotiate Russia’s long-term base leases for financial and diplomatic benefits. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov

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