Russia has the Khmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province and a naval facility at Tartus on the coast.

The naval outpost is strategically important and its loss would be a serious blow to Russia’s ability to project power in the Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa, Western military analysts say.

The Tartus facility is the only repair and replenishment hub in the Russian Mediterranean. Moscow has also used Syria as a base for its military groups in and out of Africa.

Syrian opposition leaders have agreed to guarantee the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic missions in Syria, a source told Russian news agencies.

The source did not say how long the security guarantees would last. Some Russian war bloggers said the situation around the bases was extremely tense.

Russian war blogger “Rybar,” who is close to the Russian Defense Ministry and has more than 1.3 million followers on his Telegram channel, said the situation around the bases was a serious source of concern, regardless of the official line of Moscow.

“Russia’s military presence in the Middle East region is hanging by a thread,” Rybar said.

“What someone in high office decided is completely irrelevant on the ground,” he added, implying that Russian forces on the bases could not defend their positions in the absence of orders from Moscow.

Earlier on Sunday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two military installations had been put on high alert, but later lowered the alert.
“There is currently no serious threat to their security,” the ministry said in announcing Assad’s departure from office and Syria.