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What did Russia's frigates signal off Syria?
Summary
A look back at the naval deployment and diplomatic contacts that accompanied the escalation in Idlib in late February 2020.
What was Russia signalling off the Syrian coast on 28 February 2020? As reported at the time, Moscow deployed two frigates, the Admiral Makarov and the Admiral Grigorovich, to the Eastern Mediterranean. Both were armed with Kalibr cruise missiles.
The deployment came during the Northwestern Syria offensive, which ran from December 2019 to March 2020. Fighting around Idlib had escalated, involving Syria and Russia on one side and Turkey's interests in the Syrian civil war on the other.
Diplomacy a day earlier
On 27 February 2020, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu held talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The meeting took place amid the escalation in Idlib.
Taken together, the two developments showed military and diplomatic activity moving in parallel over those two days: Russian naval assets took up position in the Eastern Mediterranean, while Ankara consulted the Alliance.
