Dozens dressed in camouflage men fly from Rostov-on-don in Damascus and Latakia on the Syrian aircraft of private airlines. These aircraft are sold to the middle East through offshore companies.
The formation of Russian private military contractors secretly delivered to Syria in civilian aircraft to support President Bashar al-Assad in a six-year civil war. The transfer of “strong men”, dressed in camouflage and sportswear, carried out by aircraft of the Syrian private airline Cham Wings from the airport “Platov” in 30 km from Rostov-on-don, according to a journalistic investigation by Reuters, published on Friday, April 6.
According to Reuters, over 14 months, starting 5 January 2017, made of 51 flying planes Cham Wings from Damascus and Latakia to Rostov and back. They arrive in Rostov mainly at night and leaving early in the morning when the airport is almost no other passengers. Open information about these flights and the flight schedule no, but the information appears regularly in the online databases for tracking flights.
Loophole in US sanctions
At the airport, reporters saw about a hundred men, presumably mercenaries private military company, headed for the check-in counter for a flight to Syria on the Airbus A320. The same flight from Syria arrived 30 people, “tanned faces”, most of them were “in desert camouflage.” The aircraft used for such carriage, previously owned European and American companies, but were sold to middle Eastern companies “through a network of intermediaries and offshore,” according to the published material.
In this network participated was in Ukraine, the company “Khors” and “Dart”, which had a relation living in Kiev, a former Soviet naval infantryman Sergei Tomchani. Over the past 7 years these companies have bought or leased 84 of second-hand Airbus or Boeing, at least 40 of them appeared in Iraq, Iran or Syria.
This scheme of aircraft deliveries to the middle East shows a dent in the U.S. sanctions, which were to limit the ability of Assad and his allies to obtain men and equipment for a military campaign. The Russian authorities do not recognize the existence of military contractors involved in ground operations in Syria.
