Record number of Russian civilians visit Syria

MOSCOW — The number of Russian civilians travelling to Syria, where Moscow is running a military operation in support of President Bashar Al Assad, reached record levels this year, according to official figures published by a Russian security service.

The data does not include Russian servicemen or explain what the civilians are doing in Syria.

But the figures shed some light on the scale of Russian activities in Syria because they appear to include civilian personnel working for the military and may also reflect the presence of private military contractors who, according to people familiar with the deployment, are fighting in Syria in support of regular Russian troops. The number of Russian civilian trips to Syria grew after President Vladimir Putin announced a partial withdrawal of troops last December, an increase apparently indicating an expansion of Moscow’s activities in the country.

The numbers of departing Russian citizens are counted by destination countries and are published every quarter by the Federal Security Service (FSB), which supervises border guards, on a government statistical website.

In the first half of this year the FSB registered more than 17,000 departures by Russians to Syria, more than in any six-month period since the Russian operation began in September 2015.

There were nearly 22,000 departures in the whole of 2016 and more than 25,000 in 2017. The

number of Russians travelling to Syria may be less because some may make several trips.

The FSB has published no data on Russians returning from the country.

Late last year, Putin flew to Syria to announce mission accomplished and to order the withdrawal of “a

significant part” of Moscow’s military contingent. In August, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said more than 63,000 Russian servicemen had earned combat experience in Syria since 2015, but troop rotation means the size of the deployment remains unclear. —