Russian military expert Alexander Mikhailov suggested that "for [US President Donald] Trump, strikes on Syria are the only way to convey to his political opponents that he is not an agent of the Kremlin."
"Probably, he thinks he has accomplished this task, so it is unlikely that in the next few days we will see the continuation of this story in the form of missile strikes against Syria. The necessary information background, justifying the bombing, has already been formed, so there is no sense in further military actions," Mikhyailov stressed.
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He predicted that the Saturday missile strike on Syria would be followed by the strengthening of this Arab country's air defense network.
"The present Russian air defenses are capable of containing most of the missile threats Syria faces. Russia's General Staff has already promised to return to the issue of supplying S-300 missile systems to Syria," Mikhailov said, recalling that the S-300s were earlier only used by the Russian armed forces for protecting their military bases.
He was echoed by Gevorg Mirzayan from Russia's Financial University, who said that Trump is "clearly pleased that he has delivered on his promise to bomb Syria."
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"In any case, the US has launched purely demonstrative and unconvincing missile strikes on Syrian targets which inflicted no real damage. Russia did not take part in repelling the strike because it was not really necessary given that about 70 percent of the US missiles were downed by outdated Syrian air defense systems," Mirzayan concluded.
On April 14, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France launched strikes on a number of targets in Syria in response to the April 7 alleged chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
The US warships Porter, Cook, and Higgins as well as French and UK Mirage and Tornado fighters fired over 100 cruise and air-to-surface missiles at Syria's civilian and military facilities.
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According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a total of 71 missiles out of 103 were intercepted by Syria's air defenses while approaching their targets; Russian air defense units did not take part in the interception as no missile entered their areas of responsibility.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry slammed the missile attack as a hostile move which "will only lead to inflaming tensions in the world and threatens international security." Russian President Vladimir Putin described the strikes as aggression against a sovereign state.
On Friday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that Moscow had proof that the alleged Douma chemical attack had been a false flag which was staged by Western-backed NGOs, including the White Helmets, in a bid to prompt the US to launch a strike on Syria
The views and opinions expressed by Alexander Mikhailov and Gevorg Mirzayan are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
