Russia begins military withdrawal from Syria

Russia is scaling back its military involvement in the Syria conflict, starting with the withdrawal of its only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, the country's top general has confirmed.

Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov said: "In accordance with the decision of the supreme commander of the Russian armed forces Vladimir Putin, the Russian defence ministry is beginning the reduction of the armed deployment to Syria."

The announcement comes a week after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime reached a ceasefire deal with rebel forces. Peace talks are expected to begin later in Kazakhstan this month.

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Russia's air strikes, which began merely hours after being approved by parliament in 2015, "helped turn the tide in favour of the Syrian government's ailing forces" by breaking the stalemate which dominated the early stages of the conflict, says Al-Jazeera.

At the time, Putin said Russia was acting "preventatively, to fight and destroy militants and terrorists" and the Kremlin has maintained that its bombers have exclusively targeted jihadists.

However, Moscow has been accused of committing war crimes by knowingly bombing civilians and moderate, western-backed rebel forces.

"The Assad regime and Russia make the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) look hesitant by comparison when it comes to mass homicide in Syria," says The Atlantic.

The magazine also claims that the two countries' joint operation to retake rebel-held eastern Aleppo included strikes on "aid convoys, hospitals, homes, market places, and mosques".

As for why Russia has chosen to withdraw from the conflict now, with rebels still in control of much of Idlib province, the answer may lie in the divergence between Assad's objective – to re-establish control of the whole of Syria - and Moscow's own motivations.

"Unlike Syria and Iran, Russia has no interest in fighting for territory," Michael Kofman of the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute, told the BBC.

The Kremlin's goal has been to "steadily destroy the moderate Syrian opposition on the battlefield, leaving only jihadist forces in play", he says, ultimately "leaving no viable alternatives for the west in this conflict come 2017."