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August 31st, 2013 
Peter Nolan
“Russia is calling for thought before taking the decision on an operation
in Syria,” he said.
In his first comments on the Syrian crisis since the House of Commons rejected
a motion to approve humanitarian invention in Syria, Mr Putin said: “With
the Syrian army on the offensive, to talk about the Syrian government using
chemical weapons is utter nonsense,” he told the press conference in
Vladivostok.
He said Britain’s refusal to take part in military action against Syria had
been “completely unexpected” but showed “common sense.”
Despite Mr Putin’s firm support for the Bashar al-Assad government, he has
until now been largely quiet about the growing prospect of strikes against
Syrian government forces.
He has spent the past few days touring flood stricken areas of the Russian Far
East, leaving condemnation of Washington’s plans to punish Assad for use of
chemical weapons to his Foreign Minister and presidential aides.
“The British parliament’s decision on Syria was a complete surprise for
me. It shows there are people there who are guided by common sense,” he
said.
“In recent years we have become accustomed to the Western community
accepting everything without much discussion, or so it seemed from outside,
in accordance with the wishes and position of the senior partner – that is,
the United States. If this time something went wrong, I repeat: for me it is
unexpected and further more I am even surprised by that position,” he
said.
Mr Putin said he has had no contact with Mr Obama about Syria since the
allegations of a chemical weapons attack surfaced on August 21.
The Russian president said he last talked with the US president about Syria at
the G8 summit in Lough Erne in June, where they agreed to work together to
bring about peace talks in Geneva. “But I’ve had no discussions with
the American president about that recently, certainly not since the latest
allegations of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government.”
Mr Putin’s comments came as Russia’s state-owned arms exporter moved to quash
reports that it had stepped up arms supplies to Damascus in recent months.
Russia has repeatedly said it will honour arms contracts signed with the
Syrian government before the civil war broke out as long as no formal arms
embargo is imposed by the UN security council.
But a spokesman for Rosoboronexport told the Kommersant newspaper on Saturday
that “payment difficulties” mean that contracts are only “formally”
being met, and deliveries could actually be put back by up to two to three
years.
The first batch of 12 MiG-29 fighters Syria had expected to receive this year
will only be delivered in 2016, the source said.
The paper added that a contract to deliver advanced S-300 antiaircraft
missiles by the first quarter of next year had gone “stale,”
citing the Kremlin’s reluctance to upset the United States and Israel, and
Syria’s failure to meet a payment schedule.
That appears to be a direct contradiction of reports that President Putin
lifted a temporary freeze on arms exports to the country after negotiations
with the United States on setting up peace talks in Geneva stalled.
A Reuters investigation published Friday cited a Russian defence industry
source saying that Syria had actually already paid at least 20 percent, as
much as half of the nearly $1 billion contract for four S-300 systems.
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