About those Russian volunteers heading to Syria…
“It is likely that groups of Russian volunteers will appear in the ranks of the Syrian army as combat participants,” Komoyedov told the Interfax-AVN news agency.
The Kremlin has said that Russia has no current plans to deploy ground troops to Syria and will confine itself to conducting air strikes to support the Syrian army instead. It has not yet offered a view on the possibility of Russian volunteers or mercenaries fighting in Syria.
Komoyedov was commenting on unconfirmed media reports that some Russian volunteers who had previously fought alongside Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine had been spotted fighting with the Syrian army.
“What attracts volunteers apart from ideas? Of course money most likely,” said Komoyedov, a lawmaker with the Communist party.
Interfax-AVN quoted unnamed media reports as saying that such volunteers could make $50 per day.
At those prices, you couldn’t hire a Seattle barista to fight for you in Syria — not that you’d want to.
But wait, there’s more. This next bit is veddy, veddy interestink:
Komoyedov spoke after Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Russian internal republic of Chechnya, told a Russian radio station on Friday he was ready to send Chechen forces to Syria to carry out “special operations” if President Vladimir Putin gave his blessing.
Those Chechen are basically Mob enforcers but without the civility and tact.
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