In two weeks time, the Russian Federation will hand over to Syria, S-300anti-air defense batteries, and modern systems for automated control for anti-air command posts. This equipment has until now only been available in the Russian military installations in Syria.

The information was divulged by the Russian Minister of Defence. However he did not specify which model of the S-300 will be handed over to Syria. In 2013, the Russian Federation had promised S-300 version V4 to Syria. However Russia did not follow through with its promise so as not to endanger Israel’s control over its air space.

The Russian Minister of Defense, Sergey Shoigou, declared that handing over the anti-air missiles S-300 to the Syrian Arab Republic: “will specifically guarantee the centralized management of all forces and installations of Syrian anti-air defense, the vigilance of the air spaces and speedy decision-making. But more importantly, it will ensure that the Syrian anti-air defence identifies all Russian planes.

Moscow’s decision follows the British, French and Israeli attack of 17 September 2018 on Lataquia during which the Russian Ilyushin Il-20 was destroyed. 15 men were on board.

Syria is the seventeenth country to equip itself with the S-300.

The anti-air missiles of the S-300 system have a range of 300 km. This makes it impossible for enemy planes to fly over Syrian territory or to approach Syria from the Mediterranean or any neighbouring country. Supplying these missiles to Syria sends out a serious warning to the air forces of the United Kingdom, France and Israel.

Supplying Syria with these modern Russian anti-air systems will end Israel’s control over the air space of the Middle East. The handing over of S-300 had been planned five years ago. However it was cancelled and this was clearly at the “request” of the United States to protect the Israel’s vastly superior air capacity. The new decision taken by Russia clearly downgrades the US veto from its triple A status. However in the US National Security Council, John Bolton, defined this Russian decision as an “escalation”, clearly to preserve the image of President Trump during the campaigns for the US legislative elections.

But the Russian Minister of Defense commented in Moscow that “We are convinced that the implementation of these measures will help to cool down the “raging bulls” and to discourage senseless actions that threaten our soldiers.” If not, we will have to respond according to the situation”.

So he declared, with clear reference to Israel. Russia has already pointed that Israel was responsible for the death of 15 Russian soldiers that had been on board the Illushin-20 which had been destroyed in the incident on 17 September.