The guardian, 2 February 2016– Russian president Vladimir Putin is undermining international efforts to end the Syrian civil war by bombing opponents of Islamic State in an attempt to bolster Bashar al-Assad, British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said on Monday.
In a clear sign of frustration with the Kremlin, Hammond scolded Putin for paying lip service to a political process aimed at ending the civil war while also bombing opponents of Assad who the West hopes could shape Syria once Assad is gone.
 “It’s a source of constant grief to me that everything we are doing is being undermined by the Russians,” Hammond told Reuters at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, about 10km (six miles) south of the border with Syria.
“The Russians say let’s talk, and then they talk and they talk and they talk. The problem with the Russians is while they are talking they are bombing, and they are supporting Assad,” Hammond said.
On Monday, Russia’s defence ministry said it had conducted 468 air strikes in Syria in the past week and hit more than 1,300 “terrorist” targets, Russian news agencies reported. But rebels and residents say the Russian air strikes are causing hundreds of civilian casualties in indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas away from the frontline.
 “Since the Russian intervention in Syria, the dribble of people who were perhaps going back from these camps to Syria has stopped dead, and there is a new flow coming in because of the actions the Russians are taking – particularly in southern Syria along the border just a few kilometres from here,” Hammond said.
Russia’s intervention had been a major setback for international efforts to find a political solution to the crisis, Hammond said. The effect of the intervention was to strengthen Islamic State, he added.
“The Russians say they want to destroy Daesh but they are not bombing Daesh: they are bombing the moderate opposition,” Hammond said, using an Arabic acronym for Isis.
“Less than 30% of Russian strikes are against Daesh targets,” Hammond said. “Their intervention is strengthening Daesh on the ground, doing the very opposite of what they claim to be wanting to achieve.”
 “We have no idea what the game plan in the Kremlin is. We don’t know. There are no councils discussing these things. It is what is going on Mr Putin’s head.” he said.
Asked if the Iranians were being more helpful than the Russians, he said: “I don’t think either of them is being particularly helpful to the peace process.
“The Russians and the Iranians are working hand in glove with the Syrian regime, and the Iranians are at least as hardline as the Russians about seeking to ensure the preservation of the Syrian regime.”