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Russia has made its mark on Syria with the crash of bombs and the thud of artillery. On Thursday the Russians added gentler sounds: live classical music echoing through an ancient stone theater and into the eerie, empty desert.

Extending its soft power into the Syrian conflict, Russia deployed a symphony orchestra led by one of its best-known conductors, Valery Gergiev, and the cellist Sergei P. Roldugin, an old and — according to the Panama Papers documents leaked last month — very wealthy friend of President Vladimir V. Putin.

Their performance space was Palmyra, the city of ruins left by Roman and other ancient civilizations and ruined further by the depredations of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

The orchestra played pieces by Johan Sebastian Bach and two Russian composers, Sergei Prokofiev and Rodion Shchedrin, in a second-century Roman amphitheater, the set for a 2015 film produced by the Islamic State that featured the execution of 25 people.

The contrast was intended to underscore what Russia sees as its underappreciated role in helping Syrian forces liberate Palmyra from zealots and fighting on the side of civilization against barbarism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/world/middleeast/syria-russia-palmyra-isis-classical-music.html

Russia seems to be doing more to build a more peaceful and stable world. The US seems to be trying to destabilise it, and introduce methods of depopulation.

This felt like posturing more than anything,why go through all the trouble of helicopter escorts with closed roads to get to the event?
Its a classic example of showing power and nothing much more than that.

The Americans are just following on the orders from the Saudi and Qatari sheikhs. Ever since Barack Obama became the POTUS, the American foreign policy in the middle-east has been completely dominated by the Sunni Arabs. The Saudis want to overthrow the secular regimes, and replace them with hardline Salafist/Wahhabist ones.

No.

This is a classic way of cleansing from bad things, of replacing them with the good, the hope for the future, the light, peace.

You remove the land mines as the first step, so that people would not die from explosions. Then you remove the mines in people's heads, and the best way of doing so is with classical music. It's sad that this simple thing even needs to be explained.

The concert is to commemorate the dead (on the same day, officer Alexander Prokhorenko was buried in Russia - he called airstrike fire at his own position, when he was surrounded by terrorists), and the concert is to remind the world that Palmyra is an ancient city, which endured time, and which will stay on, but only as long as humanity manages to get off the path of self-destruction.

Until the Western civilisation understands that simple thing, it will continue stepping on the same rake, driving into chaos time and again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b0hFIf4Zaw

PS: Speaking of the sick minds putting a twist on the memorial concert: http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/05/us-foreign-policy-calls-palmyra-concert.html

With its deeds Russia showed to the whole world, on which side is the truth.

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
"Following the concert, however, the American journal Foreign Policy, which is close to US conservative circles, called Valery Gergiev “Putin’s conductor of propaganda.”"

Someone believes it is possible such propaganda of the US in Libya, Iraq or Afghanistan?

I believe russia wants to collect geopolitical dividends.

Most of the Russian missiles fell around Homs, Hama and Idlib, cities located in field disputed by the Syrian regime and a myriad of rebel groups, among which are supposedly moderate roundups supported by the US and several jihadist factions, such as Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's Iraq. In addition to facing Assad, these groups are also enemies of ISIS. By focusing fire on the rebels, Russia shows that the priority is to provide a lifeline to Assad.

Russia did what needs to be done. The so called "moderate terrorists" (FSA, Jaysh Al Islam, Jabhat Al Nusra) are even worse than the ISIS. They have tortured and killed tens of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians, including women and children. Russia did the right thing by bombing them. And most of these groups do collaborate with the ISIS. 

You do not clean a place up by closing roads with military forces and bringing in media and mostly Russians for a event. Hey you are liberated now get out of the way so we can put on a concert!
Russia does positive things but they tend to have a need to slap themselves on the back after.
You presume the West does not follow history and who is to say if they are achieving their goal by disrupting the area. Syria is a Russian ally not the Wests, so that might explain why you disagree.