[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

...methinks Baba Vanga is right, and the collapse of Assad's regime will simply commence WWIII in earnest ala the shot fired in 1914 at Sarajevo. With Turkey which controls the Bosphorus preventing the travel of Russian warships out of the Black Sea, Putin will be loath to give up his western Syrian bases and influence in the eastern Mediterrainian Sea. With ally Iran, also bereft with the fall of the Assad regime, the matter will escalate out of control.

Originally Posted by Dargo

A larger number of Russian transport aircraft can now be seen at Khmeimim. The S-400 battery is packing up for transport. While tactical aviation is still there, Russian Forces appears to be consolidating at Khmeimim and Tartus. In short, a withdrawal is under way. Now it's clear that even if some temporary Russian presence in Syria was agreed upon, it will be a skeleton crew at best. Images captured by Maxar and Planet Labs reveal an increase in ground vehicles at the Hmeimim air base, the arrival of several large transport aircraft and the disassembly of Russian helicopters and air defences — all factors consistent with forces gathering there to depart. The Maxar imagery of Hmeimim captured two An-124 aircraft on the airport runway. The An-124 is the largest heavy-lift aircraft in the world, capable of carrying about 150 tonnes of cargo.

Three Il-76 transport aircraft, Russia’s workhorse heavy lifters, were also on the ground. Three An-32s and one An-

...too bad we can't shoot them down before the evacuating troops are redeployed in Ukraine; giving credence to Baba Vanga's WWIII prediction and bring things to a pretty pass per MIT's study that "civilization ends around 2040" anyhow. This is Russia's second bugout in the 21st century, since their swift departure from Afghanistan....and terrorist Osama Bin Laden once said "the US was a 'paper dragon'!!?