Russian newspapers have admitted that Russia and Syria suffered a “major defeat” in Syria after dictator Bashar al-Assad was removed from power.
Syrian rebels took the country in a matter of days last week, finally reaching the capital Damascus last weekend.
Assad has now been granted asylum in Moscow having received a great deal of support from Vladimir Putin during the Syrian civil war.
Many experts in the West have said that Assad’s downfall is a blow for Putin, and even the state-controlled Russian media is coming to the same conclusion.
As reported by the BBC’s Russia Editor, Steve Rosenberg, the Russian tabloid Arguments and Facts reported that “Damascus’ friendship with Moscow has been exaggerated.”
Meanwhile, a political scientist told Nezavisimiya Gazeta, a Russian daily newspaper that “we need to say it straight, Russia and Iran suffered a major defeat in Syria.”
They added: “Turkey, on the other hand, scored a big victory.”
On Tuesday, Moskovsky Komsomolets, another Russian publication, reported: “The whole system of Russia’s presence in the Middle East, constructed over the last ten years and into which very considerable resources have been invested has, in the blink of an eye, turned into a bygone political age.
“This is a lamentable, upsetting, agonizing fact that cannot be denied or understated.”
Russia and Iran-backed Hezbollah played a vital role in pushing back anti-government forces in Syria during the civil war.
The Kremlin confirmed this week that Putin personally gave approval for Assad to be granted asylum.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Such decisions certainly cannot be made without the head of state. It was his decision.”
On the day that Assad arrived in Moscow, a Kremlin source told TASS news agency: “Assad and members of his family have arrived in Moscow,” a source told the Tass news agency.
They added Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds.