– 23 March 2012: The Russian Foreign Minister (of Armenian origin) Sergey Lavrov said: The fall of the Syrian regime is a danger, because it will pose a threat of “the rise of Sunnis to power in Syria”

– 01 October 2015: The Russian Orthodox church declared that the Russian military intervention in Syria is “a holy war”

– 07 January 2018: The patriarch of Moscow and all Rus, Kirill I, said that “the war Russia is waging in Syria prevented the extermination of Christians in Syria”. He also revealed that “heads of the eastern Christian churches requested from Putin in 2013 to protect Christians in the Middle East”

– 23 July 2019: Alexander Ivanov, the spokesman of the Russian forces in Syria said that “Our involvement in Syria is merely to protect the Christians”

– Ivanov also said “Bashar al-Assad belongs to one of our favorite minorities in Syria”

– The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, talked about ensuring “strategic religious balance in Syria”.