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pampango

(24,692 posts)
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 11:41 AM Oct 2015

Russians volunteering to fight ISIL alongside Leftist Kurds

Bondo Dorovskikh traveled to eastern Ukraine last year to join separatists in their war against Kyiv. Pumped up last year by Russian state TV reports that portrayed the conflict as a struggle against bloodthirsty Ukrainian “fascists” bent on genocide, Dorovskikh joined Ghost, an anti-Kyiv rebel group. He soon quit the rebels in disillusionment because they turned out to be more like a “criminal gang” — not what Russian TV promised. He mulled switching sides, but was dissuaded.

Now, the 41-year-old Russian plans to take up arms as a volunteer fighter on a different front: Syria, where a devastating civil war is sucking in foreign powers and pitting rebel groups, Islamic State (IS) militants, and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad against each other.

Dorovskikh said he had no interest in taking sides in Assad’s showdown with his foes. “We are going there exclusively to fight Islamic State. We have no desire to take part in supporting revolution, or in supporting Bashar al-Assad, we are going exclusively to fight terrorists,” he said.

His yearning for battle appears to have been heightened by his experience fighting alongside separatists in eastern Ukraine, in a conflict that has killed more than 7,900 people since April 2014. Dorovskikh was posted in rebel-held territory in the Luhansk region and given a gun — but said he soon found that rather than fighting, the rebel fighters spent their time looting and getting drunk. Disillusioned, he left the rebels and briefly flirted with joining the Ukrainian National Guard, he told RFE/RL.

http://www.juancole.com/2015/10/russians-volunteering-alongside.html

This is only a handful of volunteers but an interesting development.

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Comrade Grumpy

(13,184 posts)
2. If you have any evidence to the contrary, please post it. Meanwhile, here's some more:
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 01:59 PM
Oct 2015

From the article:

<snip>
He said he tried to establish contact with the Syrian authorities in Damascus and with pro-government groups in order to enlist as a volunteer, but was unsuccessful. In the end, he only managed to establish contact with Kurdish forces.

“The Kurds are very efficient guys. They have very good organization for taking in volunteers,” he told RFE/RL. “We’re not the only ones who appealed to Bashar al-Assad; several Russian citizens who are now in Syria came up against absolutely the same problems.”

Not Taking Sides

Russia acknowledges sending advisers to Syria, in part to help the military use weapons provided by Moscow, but Putin has vowed not to deploy ground troops — at least for now. There have been reports of Russian volunteers fighting on the government side at various times in the more than four-year war that has killed some 250,000 people.

Dorovskikh said most of the men he had rounded up to fight in Syria have past military experience, and their average age is about 40. “We are gathering people who don’t just have combat experience, but have served in the army. Nearly everyone came from the army, nearly all are officers,” he said. “They are people who served in Chechnya, some on the Tajik-Afghan border. There’s one who served in the French Foreign Legion.”

The route for Dorovskikh’s volunteers takes them to Sulaymaniyah in Iraq’s Kurdish region, and then into Syria, he said. He said they were not being paid to fight and were required to pay their own way to Iraq, obtain their equipment, and bring $200 a month for expenses.

Dorovskikh said he had no interest in taking sides in Assad’s showdown with his foes. “We are going there exclusively to fight Islamic State. We have no desire to take part in supporting revolution, or in supporting Bashar al-Assad, we are going exclusively to fight terrorists,” he said.

Dorovskikh said he was motivated by the desire to fight against the “evil” that he sees in IS. “They kill defenseless people, cut off people’s heads, and set people on fire. They aren’t even warriors. Do warriors behave like that with defenseless people?” he asked. “Anyway, [IS] is a terrorist organization that is recognized as such by probably every single government in the world.”

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
4. It's just funny that he's always "volunteering"
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 03:46 PM
Oct 2015

with "former army officers" in places where the Russian army is conducting operations, is all...And despite ISIS being around for awhile now he's only JUST now deciding to travel to Syria, a week after Putin makes a military commitment...

So tell me, how far does $200 a month go towards buying food, shelter, clothing, to say nothing of equipment, ammo, medical care, etc.? Unless he has some hardcore fetish for bloodshed and the battlefield, what's the point of this bunch risking their collective neck? Do these men have families back home? If they do, is there some kind of death benefit set aside for them? If not, why?

By the way, just who is commanding this platoon of volunteers? Are they working with Assad's forces, or are they 'freelancing'? Do they know the local languages and customs, or are they content to stick out like sore thumbs carrying rifles? And what about intel? It's not like ISIS is wearing easily visible uniforms or something...

 

Comrade Grumpy

(13,184 posts)
5. Uh, he went from Iraqi Kurdistan into northeast Syria.
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 04:12 PM
Oct 2015

Sounds like he's probably helping the Syrian Kurds.

That's far away from where the Russians are in the west of Syria.

Civil wars always attract stray fighters. Ex-soldiers motivated by boredom, battle lust, or greed. As I noted above, there are Americans doing the same thing in Kurdistan.

So many questions, so few facts.

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
6. So didn't he say he was helping the Syrian Kurds?
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 04:22 PM
Oct 2015

And if his platoon can live and fight on $200/month, maybe I need to start hiring my own private army at that rate...

Response to Comrade Grumpy (Reply #2)

 

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)
9. fighting for the Kurds and not Assad, taking a public piss on the Donbass "Defense Forces"
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 05:40 PM
Oct 2015

seems to add up.

This isn't one of Putin's 'volunteers' to fight for Assad.

 

NuclearDem

(16,184 posts)
7. There are enough civilians and non-state actors in Syria without SOFs and thrillseekers joining them
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 05:30 PM
Oct 2015

Governments need to be doing a better job clamping down on this. These people strain diplomatic and military assets and are even less likely to be held accountable for illegal acts.

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