Russia’s sudden offer in the past few days to provide military aid to the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Syria surprised many, coming after weeks of airstrikes against Syrian factions that included parts of the FSA, and Russian military statements suggesting that in many ways, the FSA is so disunited it practically doesn’t exist anymore.
Many see Russia’s offer as an attempt to underscore their flexibility on the war, to contrast it with US portrayals of both Russia’s involvement in the ISIS war and their own involvement. Almost immediately, the reports suggested the FSA had “rejected” the Russian offer as insincere.
That may not be the case, however, as the Associated Press reported that since the offer, a former FSA fighter who now acts as a contact in Turkey has been setting up details of potential meetings between Russian officials and high-ranking FSA commanders in certain factions.
The man, identified as Abu Jad, said that they are waiting for “confidence-building steps,” but also conceded that there was “no consensus” across the FSA leadership on the matter. This likely enforces Russian comments about FSA disunity.
Pro-US rebels are accusing Russia of making this offer to try to divide the FSA, but the fact of the matter is the group is already heavily divided, with some factions openly aiding al-Qaeda and threatening suicide attacks against Russia while others are trying to portray themselves as purely secular forces averse to the Islamist factions.
There's no "United", never was and not going to be any organized front against anything or anyone but those whom are fighting for more payments by Saudis-Wahhabism-Qatari and they will fight anyone and anything for more pay.
Putin probably is trying to divide the rebels but that just shows that his military campaign against them has been a failure. "If I can't beat you, join me"! As in Ukraine, Putin's strategy is to use force first and "negotiate" only when he is defeated militarily. Also, dividing the FSA doesn't help Putin at all, since he's still bogged down trying to deal with the part that won't join him and since these groups are not finite, new, possibly hard-line recruits will bring the "non-Putin" faction back up to its present strength. Thus, I would see this as Putin thrashing about wildly in desperation trying to find a way to avoid being kicked out of his precious naval base.