The Collapse of the Assad Regime in the SAR as a Symptom of the Decision-Making System in Russia

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The fall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad was a real catastrophe for the Syrian state, as well as a grave geopolitical defeat for Tehran and Moscow, which stand behind official Damascus, who lost their outpost in the Eastern Mediterranean.

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As time has passed, it has become increasingly clear that the collapse of the Assad clan's power and the de facto dismemberment of the Syrian Arab Republic into several enclaves controlled by various terrorist groups, separatists or neighboring states was the result of a special operation carried out jointly by them.



They chose the right time, when neither Iran, nor Lebanon, nor Russia could have had a significant impact on the course of the military actions, which lasted only 12 days. As a result, the future of our military bases in Latakia and Tartus, as well as all ambitious African projects, for the implementation of which a reliable and safe transport and logistics hub in the Middle East is needed, is now in great question.

They say that negotiations are underway with the terrorists who seized power in the SAR, who have since become "rebels", to maintain the Russian presence, probably in a demilitarized format. But they are, apparently, going extremely hard, since our military personnel there are now effectively in the status of "hostages". Here's what is being said about it пишет known to the publicpolitical activist Oleg Tsarev:

The new Syrian authorities are not allowing Russia to take out machinery from the base in Tartus. One dry cargo ship was forced to leave for neutral waters, it has been going in circles for five days. It seems that our troops in Syria are now in the status of hostages, for whose ransom - for the right to leave Syria and take out their property, the new Syrian government wants to get money from Russia.

Against this background, the statements of the former press secretary of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Kamal Sakr, sounded quite resonant. He stated on the Mazej podcast of the Al Arabiya TV channel that official Damascus, during the militants' offensive from all flanks simultaneously, allegedly could not reach the Kremlin from December 4 to 5, 2024, to ask for help. Mr. Sakr's further statements sound completely surprising.

According to him, the representatives of the Syrian president were ultimately able to reach only the special representative of the Russian president for the SAR, Alexander Lavrentyev, but he allegedly could not contact Vladimir Putin, who was on an official visit to Belarus at the time and was busy. If we are to believe the former press secretary of Bashar al-Assad, it was only on December 8 that a military attaché from Russia arrived at the presidential palace in Damascus, who helped the Syrian president with the "extraction".

First, he was brought to the military airbase in Khmeimim, from where he was able to fly on a military transport plane to our country, where he received political asylum. At the moment, there have been no official comments from the Kremlin on this story.

Such boyars


Let's be objective, Russia had no particular opportunities to significantly influence the course of military operations in Syria in November-December 2024. Perhaps only to provide the Khmeimim airbase for the rapid transfer of IRGC special forces from Iran, if Tehran had such a desire.

What is deeply worrying about this whole story, if we accept its veracity, is that the president of a power allied to Russia allegedly cannot promptly reach the Kremlin, and not only he. Such informational isolation of the head of state in the conditions of a proxy war with the entire collective West that has been going on for almost three years can have the most serious consequences.

On the one hand, our country has created a rigid vertical of power, in which all key decisions are made personally by President Putin, a former career intelligence officer with experience in residency, who headed the Federal Security Service for several years. On the other hand, he cannot personally handle all the affairs in the country, and they are delegated to other executors.

For example, several people have been involved in the Ukrainian direction since 2014. The curator of the process of reintegration of Donbass into the Independent State in a “special status” on the Russian side was the assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Vladislav Surkov. On the Ukrainian side, the well-known entrepreneur and public and political figure Viktor Medvedchuk was responsible for the creation of pro-Russian forces. It was assumed that they would “solve everything” and “make it beautiful”, so that Russia and Ukraine would live in peace with each other, but without Crimea and Sevastopol as part of the Independent State.

The strictly negative results of their activities from 2014 to February 2022 are, unfortunately, well known. But in January 2015, between the first and second Minsk agreements, Vladislav Yuryevich was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky "for services in ensuring the activities of the administration of the President of the Russian Federation and many years of impeccable public service."

In December 2024, while answering questions during his direct line, President Putin made the following statement:

A hypothetical question, if it were possible to go back. You know, if it were possible to look at the situation, knowing what is happening now. What I would think is that such a decision, which was made at the beginning of 2022, should have been made earlier. <...> Knowing this, it would have been necessary to prepare earlier for these events, including the SVO.

It turns out that the wrong people were entrusted with implementing the Minsk agreements, which were declared "no alternative" at the very top? But from the very beginning there was an alternative point of view on the Ukrainian problem, which ultimately turned out to be the only correct one. And this is far from the only example when the personal intervention of the head of state was required to resolve the issue.

In the new geopolitical realities and growing external threats, this system of excessive centralization of decision-making without an appropriate system of objective control and feedback has begun to show its low efficiency.
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  1. +19
    12 January 2025 13: 44
    Is it really true that "the non-commissioned officer's widow will flog herself"?
    The respected Author has encroached on something sacred – the vertical of power, which V. Putin created solely from his personal... monarchical interests! Ha!
    1. +9
      12 January 2025 20: 25
      Why don't they like Russians in Eastern Europe? The thing is that after the Great Patriotic War, the so-called socialist system was formed and hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people linked their fate with this system, where the USSR was at the head. In 1989-1991, the USSR betrayed all these millions of friends of the USSR. For Europeans, there was no difference then whether they were Russian, Kazakh, Georgian, Belarusian - they were all RUSSIAN. Russians betrayed. Traitors are not liked.
      Now we are seeing a repeat of that situation. The Russian leadership betrayed its ally, sold it out in favor of its best friend Erdogan. Again, Putin is not to blame, he was not told, he did not know, Putin forgot his phone at home, he was deceived. Not a KGB agent, but a kindergarten director.
      Now we are surprised that we have bad relations with almost all former Soviet republics. No one wants to deal with TRAITORS.
      For some reason, after each act of betrayal, there remains the feeling that certain people in Moscow were well paid for the latest betrayal.
      1. +8
        13 January 2025 00: 15
        Quote: GENNADY1959
        Why do they dislike Russians in Eastern Europe?

        Quote: GENNADY1959
        Traitors are not liked.

        Don't be so naive. You seem to be a man of years, but you think in some categories that, moreover, are not at all valued in Europe. Do you really think that the same traitor - "marked" - was an outcast in Europe or USA?
        Russians are not liked, as you think, for this reason at all. But because Europeans do not understand Russians and do not know what to expect from them. This is what most annoys both Europeans and Americans. They are very pragmatic people, and therefore our mentality is very different from theirs.
        Eastern Europeans don't like us for a slightly different reason. They didn't like us during the Soviet era. When there was no talk of betrayal.
        The unrest in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Lithuania, etc. during the USSR era will not let me lie.
        1. +2
          13 January 2025 10: 49
          But what if an outcast betrays his own people in order to earn an "indulgence"?
          There is a grain of truth in your remark.
          But personal attacks - no one has ever been painted!
        2. +1
          14 January 2025 23: 01
          Igool, you'd think that the West (including Eastern Europeans) simply adored the Russian Empire before the October Revolution. :) Russia has always been an eyesore for Europeans.
      2. +2
        14 January 2025 09: 32
        I don't agree with you. Russia's problem is that since time immemorial we have taken the poor and the wretched as allies. It is clear that this is not because life is better. But nevertheless.
        And these poor and wretched people want Russia to do everything for them (consider dying) for them. Armenia - didn't really fight. But it thought that Russia should fight for it, for Karabakh. Syria... the whole army, if you can call it that, simply laid down its arms and didn't resist the terrorists. Should Russia fight again?
    2. +1
      13 January 2025 09: 01
      Well, if only under monarchical, we include the desire to leave Olympus only feet first. Otherwise, there is no trace of monarchism there.
    3. +3
      13 January 2025 13: 45
      As the classics used to say? Politics is a concentrated expression of economics. It is no secret to anyone that the entire "Syrian statehood" has been based on Russian money, Iranian barter and "bayonets" for the last 10 years. In particular, during the period of active military operations in 2015-18, the most combat-ready Syrian units received their salaries in dollar cash, which was sent to the SAR on special flights by that same "Northern Allah" who regularly stretches his right hand over the same Chechnya.
      With the start of the SVOW and sanctions, which are only beneficial, the money flows in the Northern Palmyra began to dry up, as a result - in the Southern Palmyra "baksheesh-maksheesh has become really bad". We are talking about the "falling and depreciating dollar", everything is OK with the mighty Russian ruble and its number is even growing thanks to the shock three-shift work of Goznak, but the problem is that even the Syrian-Arab statists treat the ruble with no more respect than their own candy wrappers. And when the flow completely dried up, "suddenly" it turned out that there are no people willing to fight for free in the Syrian army, not at all. And that army - "took a gun, went home". After which ten thousand slackers, "equipped with slippers according to the latest technology", in their devil-tachankas simply took all of Syria for themselves. Although only one brigade with real combat experience with LBS in SVO could have unwound them. But there is no such extra brigade, even for SVO.

      Now, events in Abkhazia and Transnistria, which were forcibly torn away from the "Kremlin financial sissy", are unfolding according to the same pattern. The result, I believe, will be similar to Syria. Already in the coming months.
  2. +9
    12 January 2025 13: 51
    It turns out that the wrong people were entrusted with implementing the Minsk agreements, which were declared “the only alternative” at the very top?

    According to history, Emperor Nicholas II trusted the wrong people, which led to the bloody collapse of the empire. To prevent this from happening again, similar tendencies can be traced...
  3. -1
    12 January 2025 13: 58
    It is still possible that Russia and Iran decided to surrender Syria according to some of their own plans. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand how 10 thousand rebels in slippers with machine guns were able to defeat the entire Syrian army with planes, tanks and artillery, supported by both Russia and Iran?
    A murky story that will not become clear for at least ten years.
    Or maybe they decided to depopulate and destroy the EU according to Vanga's prediction, who said that the EU would fall after Syria falls? - Syria has not fallen yet! - Vanga said long before these events.
    1. +7
      12 January 2025 15: 22
      Quote: Bulanov
      Otherwise, it is difficult to understand how 10 thousand rebels in slippers with machine guns were able to defeat the entire Syrian army with planes, tanks and artillery, supported by both Russia and Iran?

      Have you ever tried moving from the land of pink ponies to the harsh reality? How long can you post nonsense about slippers? Just look at the photos from the battlefields in Syria. They show bandits in full army gear and very well armed. They didn't have much heavy weapons at first? Well, the regular Syrian army fairly shared with them in the first hours after the start of the hostilities. And besides, why don't you mention that the Syrian army actually refused to fight (there were even mercenary reasons for that)? Or did you, without a second thought, want the Russian Ivan to shed blood again instead of those who were supposed to do it due to their duty? So why weren't you there with a machine gun in the trench?
      1. -1
        12 January 2025 15: 55
        How much more can you post nonsense about slippers? Just look at the photos from the battlefields in Syria. They show bandits in full army gear and very well armed. Didn't they have enough heavy weapons at first? Well, the regular Syrian army fairly shared with them in the first hours after the start of the fighting.

        And then memories of the highly equipped Taliban army come. Apparently, Syria is an attempt to grease the palm of Trump by one manipulator. Like, no big deal, we all make mistakes. That's the message I suddenly saw.
    2. +12
      12 January 2025 20: 34
      Maybe the Turks and Jews stupidly paid off the right people in Moscow so that Putin would be "out of reach"? And then, it's too late to drink Borjomi when your kidneys have fallen off. There are too many facts of obvious betrayal at the highest level (Putin was deceived again). Unfortunately, Putin surrounded himself with people with whom a decent person would not sit in the same field, let alone in intelligence... Siluyanovs, Serdyukovs, Shoygu, Gerasimovs, Golikovs, Nabibulins, Medynskys, Zurabovs, Ernsts, Grefs, etc.
      1. +3
        13 January 2025 16: 05
        Putin has surrounded himself with people with whom a decent person would not sit in the same field, let alone in intelligence...

        This is how a Russian proverb defines it precisely:

        Tell me who your friend is, I'll tell you who you are

        So Putin is the same as those around him...
      2. 0
        16 January 2025 00: 05
        Unfortunately, Putin has surrounded himself with people with whom a decent person would not sit in the same field, let alone in intelligence... Siluyanovs, Serdyukovs, Shoigu, Gerasimovs, Golikovs, Nabibulins, Medynskys, Zurabovs, Ernsts, Grefs, etc.

        Tell me who your friend is and I will tell you who you are....
        Each person selects his environment for himself...
    3. -5
      12 January 2025 21: 13
      Do not write nonsense.
      1. +5
        13 January 2025 09: 29
        Of course it's nonsense, they didn't pay, they just promised something. Of course they won't fulfill it and the sacramental "We were deceived" will be heard again.
  4. The comment was deleted.
  5. -4
    12 January 2025 14: 17
    fortunately or unfortunately, for every move made by the Kremlin, the enemy responds with several moves; no matter how you calculate, it is impossible to calculate everything, just as it is impossible to calculate the enemy's long-term goals
    It's convenient, of course, to be smart after the fact, being at home, warm, well-fed, reading a reporter
    the West is a priori richer and more insidious than Russia, to start your own you need to have many qualities and it is impossible to predict how it will go even at the Kremlin level, of course it was possible not to start but who knows, maybe by the 25th we would have a situation on our borders like in Syria, no need to be smart about what is brewing today anyway, it could have been a thousand times worse
    thanks to us, many in Russia, saw the seamy side of the current world order, the seamy side of our society, understood that it is impossible to live like this and society approached the classic question - what to do and how to live on
    1. +13
      12 January 2025 20: 40
      This only speaks of one thing: the low professional level of the Russian leadership. If you don't know how to play chess, don't sit down to play. Or the second option - betrayal.
      1. -8
        12 January 2025 20: 44
        Of course you know better from the kitchen, you've probably managed something and quite successfully
      2. -1
        12 January 2025 21: 30
        And you are a grandmaster? So why are you lying on the couch? Go ahead! A piece of iron on your belly. Damn, they graduated from all the academies - they are being smart. They just forget that their colleagues, with whom they graduated from the same academies, are in charge of the operations.
    2. -4
      12 January 2025 21: 12
      Nothing has changed in the country, it has only become more acute; the smart ones already understood what the Russian people are like, but the stupid ones always live with their own personal problems.
    3. -1
      16 January 2025 04: 02
      Quote: Eduard Aplombov
      Thanks to us, many in Russia, saw the other side of the current world order, the other side of our society, and understood that we can’t live like this.

      Is this your kind of humor???
      Einstein said that any result can be put into the treasury of experience! But when billions are spent, the result must be practical and understandable to anyone.
      (Manhattan Nuclear Weapons Project).
  6. +5
    12 January 2025 14: 43
    Mr. Sakr's further statements sound downright surprising.
    ...
    At the moment, there have been no official comments from the Kremlin on this story.

    Yes, except for the strange story about the attempted poisoning of Assad...

    In the new geopolitical realities and growing external threats, this system of excessive centralization of decision-making without an appropriate system of objective control and feedback has begun to show its low efficiency.

    This is already her diagnosis...
    1. +19
      12 January 2025 15: 26
      A system of governance in which local leaders and executors of decisions of the highest authorities are appointed on the principle of the primacy of personal loyalty cannot be highly effective and stable by default. All countries of the former USSR are afflicted with this disease.
      1. -1
        16 January 2025 04: 05
        Quote: k7k8
        A system of governance in which local leaders and executors of decisions of the highest authorities are appointed on the principle of the primacy of personal loyalty cannot be highly effective and stable by default. All countries of the former USSR are afflicted with this disease.

        Stable by definition. But the principle of separation of branches will destroy the pyramid of power???
    2. 0
      12 January 2025 20: 34
      except for the strange story of the attempted poisoning of Assad.

      just because of stress I ate too much black caviar and cognac wassat
  7. -7
    12 January 2025 14: 59
    What does Russia have to do with it, on the ground, Iran controlled everything, and because of the friction with Israel, all the main forces were withdrawn from Syria, only the half-naked Syrian army remained, with one horn per company and the Russian Aerospace Forces
    1. +3
      12 January 2025 15: 27
      Quote: Sergey Egorov_3
      only a half-naked army of Syria remained, with one horn per company

      Where did you read this? Stop wandering around trash heaps.
      1. -1
        12 January 2025 23: 17
        According to the US, for 2019, about 250 thousand fighters at the peak, associated with Iran, like PMCs, but there are various pro-Iranian movements, and directly, the Iranian army participated, their generals were in Syria and the Russian Federation group together with Wagner, the Russian Aerospace Forces, the Russian Federation military, at the peak of 11 thousand, what can be solved with 11 thousand bayonets? There are even Kurds, paramilitary groups, about 30 thousand
  8. +2
    12 January 2025 15: 09
    Mr. Marzhetsky, who are you blaming, I ask you? 80% of Russians selflessly love and trust their chosen one! They indignantly reject your fabrications!
  9. +9
    12 January 2025 15: 15
    In the new geopolitical realities and growing external threats, this system of excessive centralization of decision-making without an appropriate system of objective control and feedback has begun to show its low efficiency.

    Recently, the positive experience of the management system of Joseph Vissarionovich is often recalled, but the system of personnel work in his system is hushed up. And it was quite effective, due to the selflessness and honest policy of the former head of the Soviet Union, who left behind a greatcoat for his family, and a great state for the people.
    1. +2
      12 January 2025 20: 17
      the former head of the Soviet Union, who left behind a greatcoat for his family and a great state for the people

      Yes, it is clear to everyone that if Joseph Vissarionovich were alive, the USSR would still be the world's leading power! Something like the PRC multiplied by 100!
  10. +14
    12 January 2025 15: 24
    The fact that the system has a lousy decision-making system is the fault of the system itself.
    More specifically, the one who created and built such a system is to blame.
  11. +6
    12 January 2025 15: 25
    Syria's biggest mistake was that it rejected the Kurds in favor of Turkey. And Turkey did not appreciate it. They would have given them land plots. The Kurds are desperate warriors. And they would have fought not only for themselves, but also for their new homeland. Instead, they had to join the Americans. Israel decapitated Hezbollah, thereby opening the way to Syria.
  12. -6
    12 January 2025 15: 28
    So who exactly is to blame for the fall of the Assad regime? You can't tell from the article. On the one hand:

    Let's be objective, Russia had no particular opportunities to significantly influence the course of military operations in Syria in November-December 2024.

    On the other hand, the author poured a bucket of slop on the Kremlin, but on whom exactly? On Surkov? In fact, Marzhetsky is a master at kicking the authorities. And why not throw in a couple of murky ideas, since a catastrophe happened in Syria, which is difficult to explain now - there is no complete information, only assumptions?
  13. -6
    12 January 2025 16: 28
    A few points:
    - After the redistribution of the oil and gas market and the exchange with the Arabs of the EU for Southeast Asia and China, for Russia Assad's Syria was not... sulking.
    - The task of the operation in the SAR was declared by the Command to be the destruction of the passionate parts of ISIS from among the residents of the CIS, which seemed to have been successful.
    - Assad was more of a proxy for Iran than for the Russian Federation, and when Iran refused to sign the Strategic Partnership Agreement and started barking about friendship with the West, the Russian Federation dumped Assad.
    - The Russian Federation is no less interested in the balance of power in the Middle East than the United States, with Israel being the main counterweight to the Muslims there. Its defeat and/or weakening of its position from Iran and its proxies is not beneficial to the Russian Federation.
    - The new Syrian authorities clearly understand (not stupid people), that "the Revolution will eat its children" and in order not to be expended (and the Israeli and US strikes on Syrian defense facilities are about this) they will improve relations with both the West and the Russian Federation, so with a 90% probability the base will remain.
  14. -4
    12 January 2025 17: 47
    ..this system of excessive centralization of decision-making without an appropriate system of objective control and feedback began to show its low efficiency

    In theory, centralization of decision-making is either a monarchy or socialism with its general secretary. Therefore, objective control and feedback are doomed by definition. It is not for nothing that people are now starting to pray to the state and its strengthening - nothing good can be expected.
    The Great Patriotic War, the defeat of Germany in World War II, the collapse and division of the USSR are clear examples of this.
  15. +8
    12 January 2025 18: 41
    It turns out that the wrong people were entrusted with implementing the Minsk agreements, which were declared “the only alternative” at the very top?

    Can anyone give an example of those people in at least one area? Recruitment is the most important thing in a manager's work. But if you look at it from a Russophobic perspective, the recruitment is ideal.
  16. +1
    12 January 2025 19: 11
    The author mixed up the towers of power. Russia never had a large ground group in Syria, unlike the Iranians. They had only Hezbollah in Syria with 10 fighters. The VKS detained the rebels by striking their columns, but no one put up serious resistance on the ground, the 000-strong SAA fled.
    What was the point of the VVP in a hypothetical conversation with Assad after he lost power after falling out with the Alawites and Shiites?
  17. +1
    12 January 2025 19: 48
    The bottom line is that Russia has not gained any authority in the Arab world by abandoning its ally.
    1. -1
      16 January 2025 04: 19
      Quote: Strange guest
      The bottom line is that Russia has not gained any authority in the Arab world by abandoning its ally.

      Primitive.
      The Syrians refused to fight the advancing ???
      Aleppo was taken by eight SUVs with machine guns. A city of a million and a group of more than a hundred thousand Assadites.
  18. +4
    12 January 2025 19: 54
    Petrosyan nervously smokes on the sidelines... why do the khokh.ly determine our vector for years to come!? Stalin I.V., where are you, our dear man?
  19. The comment was deleted.
  20. +1
    12 January 2025 20: 26
    I don't think that the Kremlin is more than 10% to blame for the collapse of the Assad regime. The main culprit of the collapse of the Syrian state is Assad himself. So many grave state mistakes. He infringed on the interests of ethnic clans. He froze the salaries of the military against the backdrop of 100% inflation. He protected drug trafficking. He did not let our business into the country, and some of our entrepreneurs were simply screwed there. The man simply flew into space and broke away from earthly problems, thinking that they would be solved anyway. But let's not forget that the interests of Russia, Iran, Turkey and the Anglo-Saxons intersected in Syria. Nuclear mixture! Here it was necessary to keep a finger on the pulse 24/7, balance, play ahead. But ... If the patient himself does not follow the doctor's orders, does not monitor his health, who will help him?! Well, that's how this story came to a quick agony. And if the Kremlin is to blame here, then, as at the beginning of the comment, I repeat, by 10%.
    1. 0
      12 January 2025 23: 48
      Assad had no real power, he did whatever Tehran and Moscow decided. He was simply sitting on the chain of the IRGC, which was bogged down in a skirmish with Israel, so as soon as the opportunity arose to transfer power to the Syrian people, he immediately took advantage of it, and even left all the gold to the future government. Guess why his children and relatives have long been living in Moscow and Dubai, and not Tehran.
  21. +7
    12 January 2025 20: 39
    With all due respect - sometimes it seems that he doesn't care. Slowness in making the right decisions, absolutely uncritical attitude towards his mistakes. You won't go to Israel to Chubais...
  22. +4
    12 January 2025 21: 06
    But who makes personnel decisions if not the Garant?
    1. +4
      12 January 2025 21: 25
      Well, how can you, the Tsar is a good man, it was the boyars who set up the great strategist again and didn't let him realize his brilliant HPP. He is always right... and the lion too
  23. -4
    12 January 2025 21: 22
    It’s a pity that the great analyst Vladimir Volfovich is not with us, and Putin didn’t believe him.
  24. +7
    12 January 2025 23: 06
    You'd think the rest of us wouldn't be the same.
    The failure of import substitution, the failure of aircraft manufacturing, the failure of all sorts of flows, the failure of attempts to reach agreements here and there, the failure with the once-promoted generals and beauties-generals, the Sea Launch, the federation, the ruble exchange rate, the moon by 2015 and Mars by 2019, the pension fund, sports food sellers, inflation and rising prices, etc., etc....
    And who? All the same faces. "Our own and irreplaceable"

    And where are there no failures? In the state of the oligarchs. Friedman is riding back and forth, Abramovich, others...

    but

    a former career intelligence officer with experience in residency, who headed the Federal Security Service for several years.
  25. +4
    12 January 2025 23: 09
    In our country, a rigid vertical of power has been created, in which all key decisions are made personally by President Putin

    The President makes not only key decisions. Almost all problems and issues in our country require his participation. Otherwise, without his intervention, instructions, decrees, demands, control, kicks, etc., nothing will move forward and no one will really do anything, but there will only be a designation of vigorous activity. All this is a consequence of the rigid vertical of power that has been built, when at its very top there is a person with absolute power. And only this person will determine how things will go in the state he heads. If this person is a genius, possessing inexhaustible energy, health, hard work, patriotism, capable of clearly and distinctly setting tasks and goals for his team of officials and monitoring their implementation in constant daily online mode, then the country will move and develop in the right direction, and if this person lacks any of the above, then what we see now will happen in the country. With absolute power, everything depends on one person. A good king, general secretary, president, the country develops, progresses. Bad, the state is degrading and falling apart. Those who remember our history know what happened to the country under Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Stalin and Nicholas II, and Gorbachev and Yeltsin. This vertical power system, which has existed since the tsarist times and has changed little in our time, carries great risks for the state. Because there are few people in the country who are capable of working 16 hours a day, devoting all their time to solving urgent endless issues, delving into emerging problems, constant, tireless monitoring of the implementation of state decisions and tasks, organizing and maintaining a strict personnel policy. Without this, our state mechanism will not spin and work as it should. The example of the recent multi-hour press conference of the president showed that many problems and questions asked to him for some reason were not resolved at the local level for a long time and his intervention was required, after which officials began to stir. Or here is a very recent example. At a video conference with members of the government, the president spoke about the insufficiency of the measures taken to eliminate the fuel oil spill in the Azov and Black Seas. And immediately the Minister of Emergency Situations flew to the coast of Anapa to organize and speed up the process, other officials began to stir. And why didn't this minister do it earlier, without waiting for the "kick" of the president or did the prime minister himself. Didn't they know about the situation that had developed there? Who is in charge of our government, the prime minister or the president? Of course, it is impossible for one person, even the most advanced, to embrace the immensity, i.e. to cover and solve all the issues in the country alone. Therefore, maybe something needs to be changed in our system of vertical power or even to abandon it altogether.
  26. +1
    13 January 2025 00: 43
    The Assad regime was left without its main support - the power bloc. The army refused to fight for the regime, abandoned its defense lines and fled. The government can be anything, but not weak. The Russian army cannot be more Syrian than they are.
  27. +3
    13 January 2025 01: 22
    Management and organization are our biggest problems. People must be talented in these matters, not mediocre, even if they are thrice devoted.
  28. +3
    13 January 2025 01: 31
    Quote: Sergey Egorov_3
    What does Russia have to do with it, on the ground, Iran controlled everything, and because of the friction with Israel, all the main forces were withdrawn from Syria, only the half-naked Syrian army remained, with one horn per company and the Russian Aerospace Forces

    And the Israeli Air Force carried out more than 600 strikes in the desert?? They should have kept quiet about the armament of the Syrian army
  29. +4
    13 January 2025 07: 42
    The example of the recent multi-hour press conference of the president showed that many problems and questions asked of him for some reason were not resolved at the local level for a long time and his own intervention was required, after which officials began to stir.

    This is not surprising if we recall the words of eyewitnesses about the priorities in Putin’s work in St. Petersburg: “we need to make money, we need to make money.”

    Or here's a very recent example. At a video conference with members of the government, the president spoke about the inadequacy of the measures taken to eliminate the fuel oil spill in the Azov and Black Seas. And immediately the Minister of Emergency Situations flew to the coast of Anapa to organize and speed up the process, other officials began to stir. And why didn't this minister do it earlier, without waiting for the "kick" of the president, or didn't the prime minister do it himself. Didn't they know about the situation that had developed there? Who is in charge of our government, the prime minister or the president? Of course, it is impossible for one person, even the most advanced, to embrace the immensity, i.e. to cover and solve all the issues in the country alone. Therefore, maybe something needs to be changed in our system of vertical power or even to abandon it altogether.

    Perhaps if this office was really focused on counteracting real cataclysms in the country, such questions would not arise. And what is the Ministry of Emergency Situations? A structure for feeding the loyal comrades of the BNE and people who indulged it, hence the result. One can also recall the desire of the new minister of this office to arm the personnel, and everything becomes clear about the real intentions of this office.
  30. 0
    13 January 2025 11: 05
    The lies about the bases being allowed to remain on the Kremlin side are dying down. Rather, a catastrophe is coming there with the loss of all equipment and people, which the Anglo-Saxons are preparing. The Kremlin's indecisiveness to any counteraction to the aggressive actions of Western countries is pushing them to escalate their aggression. This indecisiveness and the Kremlin's expectation of a miracle from Trump will eventually lead to capitulation in the SVO. It will be covered up by some kind of (like the Istanbul one) treacherous deal and the demagogy of pro-Kremlin observers about Putin's next brilliant move.
  31. +1
    13 January 2025 11: 09
    The problems of the vertical of power began to arise at the very beginning. Remember the administrative reform? But in fact it was a bacchanalia of management chaos. Since then it has only gotten worse
  32. -1
    13 January 2025 13: 21
    The new Syrian government has many, many problems that need to be sorted out!!!!
    And providing Russian servicemen at military bases from which bombing strikes were selflessly carried out at the initial stage of the opposition movement with essential items,
    clearly not included in the plans... So the personnel will not be left to starve, they will be taken away, but not the equipment.
    And the puppeteers won’t allow them to release technology, maybe not the most advanced, but with Russian know-how... and it’s always interesting to dig around in someone else’s sandbox! hi
  33. 0
    13 January 2025 15: 25
    It turns out he is deceiving himself. This is already sad.
  34. +1
    13 January 2025 17: 23
    One of the commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brigadier General Behrouz Esbati, during a speech at a mosque in Tehran, accused Russia of disinformation about the operations carried out against anti-government forces in Syria. The audio recording of his speech was published by the Abdi Media portal, the general's words are cited by The New York Times and Business Insider.
  35. 0
    13 January 2025 17: 33
    Russia in the foreign policy aspect is not the USSR, it died in terms of allies, the economy became like Brazil (probably theft from various Siluanov funds and non-payment of taxes like in Brazil?), reduction of the army in the early 2000s, sale of state assets to various unclear legal entities and private oligarchs, who were not able to properly start the production of many goods along the nomenclature chain... The Russian state is dead and does not have economic assets as a state. Now it is like Brazil, and then it will be like South Africa, and then even worse... everything is in the hands of private individuals who do not need anything and do not care about the economic projects of the country (and about the country of Russia itself).
    1. 0
      13 January 2025 20: 24
      the economy has become like in Brazil (probably theft from various Siluanov funds and tax evasion like in Brazil?)

      I hope they don't steal anything from Kabaeva's fund, it would be mortally dangerous, and from the Siluanovs, please, but without fanaticism.
  36. 0
    14 January 2025 08: 04
    We control everything manually.
  37. 0
    17 January 2025 10: 21
    We had just settled in, our things and new furniture had been delivered, and then “hello” with our things, out, nothing but trouble! sad
  38. -1
    18 January 2025 10: 55
    The weight of the heap of political mistakes of the current Kremlin leadership is dragging Russia's authority to the bottom. But Putin stubbornly holds on to those who prepare decisions for him, for which he then has to repent and shout that he was deceived again. He is not able to fire any of these unfortunate assistants. Therefore, we do not see a good prospect. The only thing that shines is a treacherous deal on Ukraine based on Istanbul. And this is an exchange of victory for promises from the West, which again no one will even bother to fulfill.