Yes. There Will Be a Tugboat.
Russia has dispatched a “flotilla” to the coast of Syria, in the event that it is necessary to evacuate Russians.
This, along with Russian outreach to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, is tangible evidence that Bogdanov’s main fault in lamenting the possibility of Assad’s defeat was the sin of speaking the truth. (Assad and the Brotherhood are arch-enemies.) Watch what they do, not what they say.
And never fear! The tugboat will be near!:
Then on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that a flotilla of five ships — a destroyer, a tugboat, a tanker and two large landing vessels — was being sent from Baltiysk, a port in the Baltic Sea, to relieve ships that have been near Syria for months.
Re tugboat: we are observing a vanishingly rare example of the Russians’ acting responsibly at the cost of admitting their weakness. This is so far from their normal MO (think Kursk), I am sure it took courage bordering on true heroism from someone in their chain of command to make this happen.
Comment by Ivan — December 19, 2012 @ 1:13 am
Yeah, saw the reference to the tugboat in a news report and immediately had a chuckle, thinking of your previous post on the Russian Navy.
Comment by Regulator on lunch break — December 19, 2012 @ 3:51 pm