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Russia’s Defence Ministry has released more film of its aircraft the Admiral Kuznetsov engaging in combat operations in the eastern Mediterranean.
The film shows SU33 and MiG29 fighters taking off and landing on the deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov before and after carrying out air patrols over Syria.
The Russian Defence Ministry claims that the SU33s and MiG29s have carried out air strikes in Syria using 500 kg bombs.  However all the aircraft shown in the film actually carry air to air missiles, which appears to confirm that their primary role is air defence.

That the liberation of Palmyra may not be long delayed is strongly suggested by what appear to be reliable reports – confirmed both by the Al-Masdar news agency and by the Iranian news agency Fars – of a mass withdrawal of ISIS fighters from areas west of Palmyra.

Whilst Turkish officials are busy spreading stories about Russian proposals to carve up Syria and ditch President Assad that have no basis, the Turkish media has been full of stories of Russian warplanes bombing ISIS to help the Turkish army near Al-Bab.

As was bound to happen, Al-Qaeda in Syria is pulling out the stops to try to disrupt the Russian-Turkish sponsored ceasefire.

On 28th December 2016, the day before the Russian and Turkish Foreign Ministries communicated their ceasefire plan to the UN Secretary General and to the UN Security Council, a report appeared in Reuters which claimed that Russia and Turkey have come to a private understanding to divide Syria into “zones of influence”.
Supposedly this also involves the ultimate removal from power of Syrian President Assad, though supposedly Iran has not agreed to this.

In a Western media world where the words “Russia” and “fake news” are rapidly becoming conflated, it is interesting to note that two stories about Russia which gained unusual prominence in the Western media over the last few days were both false, and that Russia far from being responsible for either was the target of both.
The first of these stories concerned the Anglo-American school in Moscow.

As my colleague Adam Garrie has previously reported, on 31st December 2016 the United Nations Security Council unanimously supported Resolution 2336, a Russian drafted Resolution enshrining the Russian-Turkish ceasefire plan for Syria.

Political predictions are never a sure factor and realities can change within hours. That being said, here are my predictions for what is to come in 2017.
–Syria Will Be Free

Reading Western media reaction to Putin’s decision yesterday not to retaliate in kind to Obama’s latest sanctions has been instructive, with the tone extending from the admiring, to the factual, and to the furious.
One comment however stood out as by far the most unpleasant, and it came (unsurprisingly to those who follow him) from Luke Harding in the Guardian

The UN Security Council has just unanimously passed a Russian drafted resolution which affirms the terms of the ceasefire agreement for Syria, originally composed by Russia and Turkey.
Strictly speaking, the agreement did not need Security Council ratification, but it is significant that Russia decided to have the UNSC effectively certify the document by passing it as a binding resolution.