A Russian Navy landing ship passes through the Bosphorus Strait en route to Syria, 5 September 2013. Photo: EPA / SEDAT SUNA
In a major blow to Russian hopes of retaining a military presence in the Middle East, Syria’s transitional government has taken back control of the port of Tartus from Russian corporation Stroytransgaz, Syrian daily newspaper Al-Watan has reported.
Syria and Stroytransgaz signed a 49-year investment agreement in 2019, according to which Stroytransgaz was to manage the facility while investing €479 million in its modernisation, according to Russian business daily Kommersant.
The port, which has housed a Russian naval base since the 1970s, had been barely functioning due to the high fees and the cost of logistics services imposed by the Russian management, the port’s customs director Riad Joudi said.
“The investment agreement … has been annulled. All proceeds from the port’s activities will now go to the Syrian state,” Joudi added, noting that since the annulment of the contract, port fees had been reduced by 60%.
Joudi also indicated that Syria’s caretaker government planned to return the port to full capacity and to modernise its ageing equipment, the replacement of which had formed part of the contract with Stroytransgaz, he said.
The naval base in Tartus and the nearby Hmeimim airbase are Russia’s largest military facilities in Syria. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said last month that the country hoped to maintain its bases in Syria, even after Syrian rebels overthrew the regime of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad on 8 December.
A close Kremlin ally who allowed Russia to expand its military presence in the country after it intervened to crush rebel forces threatening his regime in 2015, Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow with his wife in December as rebel forces closed in on Damascus and has been granted political asylum by Russia.
