While Bogdanov’s statement seemed to signal Russia’s attempt to begin positioning itself for Assad’s

FILE - In this file photo taken on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012, Opposition leader Alexey Navalny, speaks with riot police officers blocking student discount plane airfare cheap ticket accra the way during a massive protest rally against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's rule in St. Petersburg, Russia. The poster reads: 'We will not be frighten". Russian investigators have launched a probe against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, suspecting him of fraud and money laundering. 36-year-old Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin s fiercest critics, was a driving force behind last winter s wave of anti-Putin rallies. Over the winter, the anti-corruption activist spearheaded a series of rallies in Moscow that drew up to 100,000 people to the streets ahead of the March vote that handed Putin a third presidential term.(AP Photo/Dmitry student discount plane airfare cheap ticket accra Lovetsky, File)
Throughout the Syrian crisis, Russia has tried to walk a fine line — eschewing statements of outright support for Assad while blocking international attempts either to pressure him to stop the fighting or to leave power altogether.
The strategy, however, has led some to view Moscow’s stance as a disingenuous attempt to prop up a dictator in a country where activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed since March 2011.
As the fighting in Syria intensified over recent months, Russian officials have held back from public assessments of whether Assad’s student discount plane airfare cheap ticket accra regime would survive. But on Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by major Russian news agencies as saying "there is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory" and "an opposition victory can’t be excluded."
student discount plane airfare cheap ticket accra While Bogdanov’s statement seemed to signal Russia’s attempt to begin positioning itself for Assad’s eventual defeat, the Foreign Ministry’s student discount plane airfare cheap ticket accra backtracking student discount plane airfare cheap ticket accra clearly student discount plane airfare cheap ticket accra indicated that Moscow has no intention yet of pulling away from its Mideast ally.
Facing further questions Friday about Bogdanov’s statement, Lukashevich insisted there had been no shift in the Russian position on Syria. He said Moscow is continuing to call for a political dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition on the basis of the peace plan agreed upon at an international conference in June.
"Our only goal is to end the violence in Syria as quickly as possible, start a dialogue student discount plane airfare cheap ticket accra between the Syrians, between the government and the opposition, and work out a formula for advancing a political process," Lukashevich said. "There hasn’t been and there won’t be any retraction from our principled line on the Syrian affairs."
Georgy Mirsky, a leading Mideast expert with the Institute for World Economy and International Relations, a top foreign policy think tank supported by the Russian government, said Bogdanov may have slipped up.
"It would amount to a loss of face, look like caving in to Western pressure. That’s not in his character," Mirsky said. "Russia is going to lose Syria anyway. But if it’s lost as a result of Assad’s ouster or killing or a coup by his own men, it wouldn’t look like Putin’s defeat. But he would look very bad indeed if even he doesn’t wait for Bashar Assad to go away."
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