“Hybrid Landscape” in the Near East

In 2015 Syrian President turned to Russia with a request for military assistance to fight the jihadist organization “Islamic State” (ISIL) prohibited in Russia. The RF Council of Federation has given permission to RF President to use armed forced of the Russian Federation in the territory of Syria. One of the purposes of the Russian involvement in military actions was to prevent spreading of terrorism at the distant approaches to our country. Military actions have been waged on vast expanses of Syria with its specific landscape and climatic conditions, in deserts and semi-deserts. The consequences of military actions that flared up time and again in this region and their effect on the natural environment have been investigated in detail and discussed in mass media. Modern military actions have acquired special nature owing to technological advances in the military area and they turned into the new, so-called “hybrid war”. This war of a new military and technical generation combines traditional and non-traditional irregular wars and requires hi-tech weapons. In other words, the hybrid war required the hybrid methods of its waging. High-accuracy weapons allow for conducting military actions without intrusion to the enemy’s territory and making strikes over many thousand kilometers using aircraft and seabased missiles equipped with the modern devices of objective control, satellite navigation, etc. As a result, the spatial and in-depth damage and destruction of the natural environment become sharply reduced. So, we are speaking here about new ecologized military actions which consequences may be termed as “hybrid ecology”.