The researcher assistant at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies and fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Muhsen AlMustafa, believes that the “tactical operational projects” that the Syrian regime has been announcing repeatedly aim to “maintain combat readiness, especially since military operations have decreased, and therefore new soldiers must be brought into the battle atmosphere.”

AlMustafa told Al-Hurra: “At the beginning of the revolution, Syrian soldiers did not always carry weapons. But now the situation is different.” Although “Russia is constantly monitoring and present,” the decision to carry out these maneuvers comes from “the Syrian regime’s leadership, while the Russian side’s role is limited to monitoring performance.” Considering that Maher Al-Assad, Bashar’s brother, appeared for the first time in “military uniform” and in training, the researcher explained: “He is a division commander, and his presence is ordinary. We should not place him in an ivory tower,” as he put it.