NEWSLINK: “How Russia’s Military Is Becoming Even Deadlier [with comment]” – The National Interest/Dave Majumdar

“… From the Russian perspective, Moscow’s campaign in Syria affords the Kremlin invaluable combat experience that is helping it to refine the capabilities of its military forces. … In the Kremlin’s view, one of the most important reasons for Russia to continue its campaign in Syria is to further refine its newly developed precision-guided strike capability. ‘Syria is not a shooting range for Russian weapons, but we are still using them there, our new weapons,’ Putin said. ‘This has led to the improvement of modern strike systems, including missile systems. It is one thing to have them, and quite another thing to see how they fare in combat conditions.’ * * * Comment: grumpy_carpenter: This article ignores one of Russia’s stated reasons for the Russian intervention in Syria …. the thousands of Chechen and North Causasian terrorists fighting in Syria. Russia wants to kill them in place in Syria rather than return home and lead terrorist activity in Russia. …”