Russia’s deputy foreign minister, meanwhile, said on Thursday that the Syrian president’s hold on power was loosening, and that the opposition may succeed in its aim of toppling his government. The remarks by Mikhail Bogdanov to the ITAR-TASS news agency are the first acknowledgement by a Russian official that the Syrian president could lose what has turned into a civil war. “As for preparing for victory by the opposition, this, of course, cannot be excluded,” Bogdanov said. “You need to look the facts in the eyes – the government regime is losing more and more control over a large part of the country’s territory.” Russia has strongly opposed any foreign intervention in the Syrian crisis, saying that the conflict is an internal issue. Bogdanov repeated Russia’s call for a compromise, saying it would take the opposition a long time to defeat the regime and the country would suffer heavy casualties. “The fighting will become even more intense, and you will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of people,” he said. “If such a price for the ouster of the president seems acceptable to you, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable.”
