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By Hugh Cameron
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Russian propagandists have reacted negatively to the sudden toppling of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, while simultaneously decrying Moscow's support for the ousted government.
Some of the country's most prolific Z-Bloggers or *milbloggers—*social media "correspondents" aligned with the Kremlin over Russia's invasion of Ukraine—voiced their outrage as rebels, led by Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, took control of Damascus over the weekend, forcing the Syrian leader to flee the country and seek political asylum in Moscow.
The collapse of the Russian-allied regime in Syria, which currently hosts Russia's only naval base linking directly to the Mediterranean, threatens to jeopardize the country's regional influence as well as Putin's domestic popularity.
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"The Russian media campaign dedicated to the operation in Syria has been extremely aggressive for many years in shaping the image of Moscow as a key player in this theater of military and political action," pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Atomic Cherry posted Sunday.
"The propaganda diligently competed with American pictures of the invasion of Iraq, which were once broadcast on Russian television and sank into the hearts of many domestic viewers as an example of the actions of a superpower."
Russian troops, who entered Syria in 2015 to support the Assad regime during the civil war, are reportedly now trapped in the country following the uprising. Other military bloggers have claimed that thousands have been abandoned by Moscow with no support.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
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"For ten years of our presence in the [Syrian Arab Republic], we have not been able to form a clear explanation for our presence," the channel RAG&E posted on Telegram Sunday. "We have not been able to explain to the people of Syria why Russia and Assad are good. And terrorists/militants/oppositionists are bad. Even taking into account the rivers of blood that have been spilled—and in the literal sense."
Correspondent for Russian state-owned broadcaster VGTRK, Alexander Sladkov, expressed further disapproval at the presence of Russia's troops in the country, writing: "In geopolitical and foreign economic terms, our presence in Syria has not been fully explained to the Russian people."
"Militants in Damascus. TV center captured. Criminals released from prison. Airport not working. What a gloomy morning," Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, said Sunday.
"It is a shame for Syria, but in the context of Russia," pro-Kremlin blogger and journalist Anastasia Kashevarova posted on Sunday. "We see how we were bent over, and we continue to praise and humiliate ourselves in the media in front of [Donald] Trump. Shameful."
"World War III will not start with Ukraine, the great upheaval will begin in Syria," Kashevarova added. "Now supposedly the U.S, Turkey, Israel have won, and Iran, Russia and Syria have lost control."
She called Assad, a close ally of Vladimir Putin whose removal threatens Moscow's influence in the region, "a clumsy, unsighted, somewhere greedy and thus inactive politician," and warned that the "aftertaste" of his regime "will be bloody and terrible."
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