Russian PM: air strikes in Syria aimed at defending people of Russia

Oct 06, 2015 Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently asserted that the main reason behind Russia’s air strikes inside Syria was defending her own people. Russia had earlier announced its decision to launch strikes on Syria following an increased foreign involvement in the four-year-old civil war.

Speaking on the sidelines of an investment forum in Russia’s Black Sea Resort of Sochi, Prime Minister Medvedev said:

“The most overwhelming assessment of the reason why such a decision was made was given by the president as he explained what we are protecting in this case. We are defending ourselves. We defend the people of Russia from a terrorism threat as it is better to do it abroad than to fight terrorism inside the country,”

He went on to insist that his country wasn’t pursuing any economic advantages from the air strikes.

“Of course we have economic relations with Syria as well as other Arab countries. But – how to put it simpler – we do not have any global economic interests in Syria. Yes, we supply weapons there, but these are not fantastic sums (of money). These are may be hundreds of millions dollars. And as you know the whole our order portfolio totals 15 billion dollars,”