Lebaneseproud, just to note your "Russian military build-up in Syria ‘unprecedented,’ officials say"
was actually covered by Evgeny Buzhinsky
“This has no comparison in the history of modern Russia,” said Evgeny Buzhinsky, a retired Russian lieutenant general and senior vice president of the PIR Center, a Moscow think tank that focuses on international affairs.
and by Ruslan Pukhov
“We are basically novices in this type of war,” said Ruslan Pukhov, a defense expert and director of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, in an interview. “And when you are a novice, you are doomed to commit some kinds of mistakes. Hopefully not deadly ones, but obviously there is a risk of casualties.”