Dmitry Gudkov, the only remaining anti-Putin opposition member in the Russian Duma, confronted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Monday about the presence of Russian troops in Syria.
In a letter to Shoigu, Gudkov asked whether Russian soldiers were fighting in Syria alongside Assad, and if so, why they were doing so "in secret, without the approval of the parliament?"
Gudkov also asked whether, if Russian soldiers were fighting in Syria, any had died or been injured. He hearkened back to President Vladimir Putin’s executive order that declared the death or injury of a Russian soldier during peacetime a military secret. "We thought that this order concerned Donbas (eastern Ukraine)—but it turned out to concern Syria also," he wrote.
"I doubt that Sunnis, Shiites, and Alawites in the Middle East should be more important to Russia than its own citizens. We’ve had enough of this ‘performing "international duties.’ And in Afghanistan, we have paid them back fully," he wrote.
NATO officials expressed concern Tuesday about reports that Russia sent a military advance team and aircraft to Syria. American intelligence analysts also suggest that Russia sent housing units and a portable air traffic station to an airfield near Latakia, according to Reuters. The airfield could be used to deliver supplies to Syrian troops and participate in airstrikes that support Assad.
A U.S. official told Reuters that the "actual deployment of [Russian] military assets or aircraft or forces" to Syria has yet to be seen. However, Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have repeatedly confirmed their support for the Assad regime, a longtime ally of Russia.