Russia can not hide the number of soldiers killed.

Russian historian and analyst Oleg Kuznetsov said these words while speaking to Axar.az about the information published recently that many Russian soldiers were killed by US forces.

Kuznetsov said there are Russian citizens of different categories involved in the war in Syria today:

“Let me also note that these people have different legal status. If we do not take into account the Russian diplomats in Syria and the staff of a variety of international humanitarian organizations, we have two categories of citizens currently fighting in this country:

Employees of Russian military and members of private military companies. The status of Russian military men at the invitation of the Syrian authorities is governed by the norms of international law, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the domestic legislation of the Russian Federation and the Russian-Syrian intergovernmental agreements. Today, the arms of the private military companies fighting in Syria have not been determined. They are there, taking into account their own threats and risks, and according to the Russian Criminal Code, they are mercenaries. As you can understand, there is a similarity between the Russian SS and the Russian military, which is a private military company in Syria - they are fighting in this or that way against international terrorism in that country. So the similarity ends. Therefore, it is completely unfair to disrupt the difference between the lives of military personnel in the Russian Federation and the private military in Syria."

Kuznetsov said that up to now, according to the official statement of the Defense Ministry, Russian military personnel in Syria have lost 44 people:

"There is no need to conceal this figure, because it is possible to examine the legal formalities required by the national legislation, for the deaths of soldiers in combat operations. Delivery to the apartment where the funeral is located, burial ceremony, assignment of pension to parents or family, preferential acceptance of children to state educational institutions, etc. As you can see, bureaucratic documentation is so complicated that it is impossible to hide these deaths. In Russia, we have such a saying - "it is impossible to hide it in a pile of pearls”. Thus, the information of the Ministry of Defense can fully be believed in this issue.The issue of combat or service losses among the employees of private military companies from Russian citizens is completely different. Their exact number is known to the staff of the consular department of the Russian embassy in Damascus, beside the employer. The point is that the certificate of death instead of the foreign passport, which confirms the fact of the death of the medical institution of the state where the body is a consular office to bring the corpse to Russia,If there is nothing left in the war, such as a missile or a mine and the body does not come to an end, then if the DNA analysis has not been carried out in time, then the person will be deemed formal and legally expired three years later. After this process, it can be declared death through the court. I have described this issue in detail in Russian legislation that your readers understand that there is a real opportunity to clarify the official sources that the Russian fighters in Syria have had how many casualties after US air strikes. However, this question should be addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not the Russian Defense Ministry. The law prohibits the disclosure of personal information - names and surnames, so that in the course of a specific period of time, the Russian consulates in Damascus were informed of the death certificate by several conscripts and, in this way, how many private employees of a private military company were involved in battles in Syria. "