Putin at a video conference on Thursday in Sochi, Russia, before a concert by Russian musicians in Palmyra, Syria.Posted on 05/05/2016 10:50:05 PM PDT by Trumpinator
PALMYRA, Syria — Russia has made its mark on Syria with the crash of bombs and the thud of artillery. On Thursday the Russians added gentler sounds: live classical music echoing through an ancient stone theater and into the eerie, empty desert.
Extending its soft power into the Syrian conflict, Russia deployed a symphony orchestra led by one of its best-known conductors, Valery Gergiev, and the cellist Sergei P. Roldugin,
Their performance space was Palmyra, the city of ruins left by Roman and other ancient civilizations and ruined further by the depredations of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
The orchestra played pieces by Bach and two Russian composers, Sergei Prokofiev and Rodion Shchedrin, in a second-century Roman amphitheater, the set for a 2015 film produced by the Islamic State that featured the execution of 25 people.
The contrast was intended to underscore what Russia sees as its underappreciated role in helping Syrian forces liberate Palmyra from zealots and fighting on the side of civilization against barbarism.
The Russians were so eager to make that point that they flew a group of reporters from Moscow to Syria and then bused them to Palmyra to see the performance. The production, attended by a heavily guarded V.I.P. guest list, was broadcast live on Russian state television.
Viewers in Russia saw the concert spliced with videos of Islamic State atrocities, part of a domestic political operation intended to mobilize pride in Russia’s military role abroad, at a time when the economy at home is mired in the second year of a deep recession.
Mr. Putin thanked the musicians by video link from his vacation home on the Black Sea.
Putin at a video conference on Thursday in Sochi, Russia, before a concert by Russian musicians in Palmyra, Syria.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I watched this on RT as I’m in Russia on a sightseeing vacation. Great music and video of the ruins in the background.
Good to see Putin help bring some semblance of sanity to this region. A President Trump will make Syria even better.
Putin’s message could be: Russia, the Third Rome, returns to ancient Roman city in the ancient Roman province of Syria of its Roman Empire indirect ancestors (using Russian Orthodox theological thinking).
I love it
Putin rocks
He & Trump are going to seriously kick ass .
I can’t wait....
Why are we not allies with the Russians?
Pipeline wars.
raising the spirits of a population that must be in the pits
- that is a touch of class
bump
I can hear the souls of all those which ISIS murdered here crying for REVENGE , from within the strains of this moving music .
THIS is what victory looks like to me .
Unfortunately it is not an American victory.....
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