Inside Kremlin's creeping military campaign in Syria

By Matthew Chance, CNN

Updated 3:11 AM ET, Mon December 21, 2015

Russian military warship sends powerful message in Syria 02:29

Story highlights

• CNN was given rare access to Russia's usually secretive military
• When it is given, it is truly astonishing, writes CNN's Matthew Chance

Hmeymim airbase, Latakia, Syria (CNN)Russians are renowned for their endless patience -- and I sometimes feel they like to test us foreigners whenever they can.

Certainly our journey into Syria with the Russian defense ministry was testing: Seven hours on a bus to a military airport outside Moscow, three hours going through security, then six hours on a Soviet-era Tupolev passenger jet to Syria.

It was 4 a.m. when we finally touched down, bleary-eyed, at the Hmeymin Air Base in Latakia on northwest Syria's Mediterranean coast, the staging ground for Russia's air war against Islamist terror groups fighting for control of Syria.

As we dragged our heavy boxes of equipment across the tarmac, the sun rose over the mountains on the horizon, casting light on the vast air base -- and the sheer scale of Russia's military involvement in Syria.

For Western journalists, any kind of access to Russia's normally secretive military is rare. But when it is given, it is truly astonishing.

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http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/21/world/russia-syria-matthew-chance-back-story/