Russia on Wednesday criticised President Bashar al-Assad for his “big delay” in implementing reforms, saying Damascus risked escalating the Syria crisis by failing to take Moscow’s advice. In a rare public rebuke from Moscow to the Syrian leader, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Assad of “inertia” and said Russia’s hugely controversial policy on Syria was not aimed at defending his regime. But he also offered little hint of an immediate shift in the policy of Russia, which has irritated the West with its insistence on equally blaming the violence on Syrian opposition rebels as much as the government forces. “The side in the conflict in Syria on which we have influence is the government of Bashar al-Assad. Unfortunately, his actions, in practical terms, reflect our advice far from always and far from swiftly,” Lavrov said. In one of his most public displays of frustration with the Syrian leader, Lavrov said Assad’s stabs at reform like ending the one party rule of the Baath party had been welcome but far too late. “Yes he has adopted useful laws to renew the system — to make it more pluralistic than the one-party system that existed there — but with a big delay,” he told the lower house parliament the State Duma. “The suggestion to start (national) dialogue is also being made with a delay. Meanwhile the armed resistance is gaining its own dynamic and this inertia can end up engulfing everyone,” Lavrov warned.
