The Kremlin on Monday declined to comment on media reports suggesting that Russia plans to supply Syria with S-300 air defense missile systems, but said a Western missile strike on Syria had soured the atmosphere in the region.
Citing unnamed military sources, Russia's daily Kommersant newspaper reported Monday that Russia might start supplying S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Syria in the near future.
The report said experts believed that Israel would react negatively to the development and might bomb the area where the missile systems were slated to be deployed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that Western military strikes on Syria earlier this month, in response to alleged poison gas attacks launched by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces on a rebel town near Damascus, had essentially removed any moral obligation Russia previously felt to withhold the missile systems from its Syrian ally.
"The missile strike badly worsened the atmosphere around Syria and [undermined] the Syrian peace process," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Monday when asked about the possible S-300 delivery.
"Great damage was done to international law and the spirit of international law in terms of cooperation," he said.
