Russian parliament gave green signal to Putin to use troops in Syria

Russian parliament Duma on 30 September 2015 gave its assent to President Vladimir Putin to send Russian troops to crisis-struck Syria. However, the Kremlin decided that it will only use air force there, and not ground troops.

As per the Constitution of Russia, the president has to seek approval of the parliament before using Russian troops abroad.

As per the official announcement of Dmitry Peskov, the press spokesperson for Putin, Russia is deploying the troops in Syria to fight terrorism and to support the legitimate Syrian leadership in the fight against terrorism and extremism.  The announcement pointed that Syria had sought the assistance of Russian troops in its fights against the terror outfit, Islamic State.

The Russian Government announced that the country decided to help Syria in order to protect its own country from Islamic militants, not because of any foreign policy goals or ambitions.

The current decision of using troops in Syria is strongly reminiscent of Putin’s decision to send Russian forces in Ukraine before Russia annexed Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.

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