The administration of interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa plans to transform Russia’s Hmeimim air base into a training and humanitarian center, Kommersant newspaper reported, citing a Syrian source familiar with the situation.
According to the newspaper’s interviewer, the facility “will be under the joint management” of Russia and Syria, but will serve “non-military purposes only.” The Syrian authorities want to use Al-Qaeda’s capabilities to train their forces, which mainly consist of members of extremist formations, which, as the source noted, lack combined arms training.
Kommersant, citing the Lebanese newspaper Al-Modon, wrote that Damascus wants to attract Russian trainers to training programs.
Russia currently controls the Hmeimim air base in Latakia Governorate and the naval logistics center in Tartus, Syria. The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, allied with Moscow, and his flight to Russia, called into question the Kremlin’s cooperation with the new Syrian authorities. In October 2025, Ahmed Al-Sharaa came to meet the Russian President in Moscow maleThe new Syrian authorities will respect all agreements previously signed with Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in interview Al-Arabiya channel said that the current Syrian authorities see the Russian presence as “a stabilizing factor, a role that balances the influence of other players.” “As for our military facilities. We are discussing them now. And I repeat again, the Syrians are interested in our continued presence. These are no longer purely military functions, as they were before December 2025, but facilities that are well suited for reuse in humanitarian centres.”