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Russian frigates move off Syria as Idlib tensions rise
Summary
On 28 February 2020, Russia sent two missile-armed warships to the Eastern Mediterranean as Ankara turned to NATO over Idlib.
What did Moscow signal on 28 February 2020, as fighting in north-western Syria intensified? One answer came at sea: Russia deployed two frigates, the Admiral Makarov and the Admiral Grigorovich, to the Eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast. Both were armed with Kalibr cruise missiles.
The deployment came during the north-western Syria offensive, which had run since December 2019 and was by then producing an escalation in Idlib involving Syria and Russia, with Turkey drawn into the confrontation.
Ankara turns to NATO
On 27 February 2020, the day before the frigates were reported, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held talks amid that escalation.
Taken together, the two developments showed the different tracks at work in those days: a naval deployment by Russia off the Syrian coast, and diplomatic contact between Turkey and the alliance it belongs to. The reports from the period do not detail what was agreed in the talks, and the frigates' orders were not set out in them either.
