Presidential vote not to save Syria from collapse – Russian military official

(Interfax – Moscow, May 23, 2013) Radical groups in Syria will continue to impose their conditions of forming a government system even if the election of a new president is held in the republic, and this can provoke the collapse of the country, the chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Armed Forces, Lt-Gen Igor Sergun, has said.

“The escalation of the armed conflict in Syria, where opposing forces continue to look only to a military solution to the problem, is leading to the further destabilization of the situation. And even if the election of a new president is held in the republic and ‘moderate’ opposition forces take part in it, radical groups will continue to impose their conditions of forming a future government system,” Sergun told an international conference on European security in Moscow.

Sergun said that this fact could provoke the collapse of the country, an increase in the influx of refugees to the neighbouring countries and further destabilization of the situation in the region.

He also pointed out that the number of the supporters of an armed jihad from Europe in the ranks of Syrian opposition activists and Libyan “revolutionaries” was increasing.

“We should expect that having acquired the experience of combat actions, they will finally come back to their countries and will be able to use it on the European continent,” Sergun said.