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Russian Presidential Hopeful Slams Kremlin On Syria, Ukraine Aleksei Navalny said that Russia should be battling Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition rather than helping President Bashar al-Assad's forces retake territory from rebels in a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people.Russia is fighting on the wrong side in Syria and has turned close neighbor Ukraine into a "hostile state" through its aggression, Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny has said in an interview.Navalny, an anticorruption crusader and opposition leader who announced last week that he plans to run for president in 2018, spoke to RFE/RL's Russian Service on December 20.He said that Russia should be battling Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition rather than helping President Bashar al-Assad's forces retake territory from rebels in a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people.Russia should not "try to save Assad, who represents a military junta," Navalny said. He said that getting involved in the war on the same side as Shi'ite-dominated Iran and Hizballah, the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group fighting alongside Syrian government forces, stokes anger among members of Russia's mostly Sunni Muslim minority."That is exactly why people from the North Caucasus go to Syria in droves to fight along their Sunni brothers against Shi'a," Navalny said, referring to the part of southern Russia that includes mostly Muslim regions such as Chechnya and Daghestan.Continued: http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-navalny-presidential-candidate-criticizes-syria-ukraine/28189546.html
