The longer the Syrian war continues, the more paradoxes have sprung up out of it. The latest involves the Moscow-backed military group striving to carve out an autonomous zone for itself in southwestern Syria and even clashing with the regime forces.

By offering its backing to the formation, the Russians, once the guarantors that those southwest territories would remain solidly under President Bashar al-Assad’s control, are now trying to kill two birds with one stone. They seek to both contain the Iranian influence near the Israeli border and quash any signs of dissent that emerged following the "reconciliation." For all practical purposes, it is highly unlikely that Russia-backed formation — comprising former rebels and acting autonomously from Assad’s forces — can ever form the backbone of the renewed armed services. Even so, Russia’s backing may yield some benefit by making the upcoming Syrian elections in 2021 appear more democratic.

On July 28 the Fifth Corps’ Eighth Brigade welcomed 900 new fighters at a graduation ceremony in Bosra al Sham, Daraa province. The ceremony took place near the ancient citadel Bosra under the flags of both the Syrian Arab Republic and the Syrian Army. Also present were the local protesters chanting anti-government slogans such as “Bashar, we are coming for you” and “Assad’s regime will fall” and holding placards demanding the release of political prisoners. Russian military police were reportedly also at the scene, quietly observing from the sidelines. The ceremony marked an important milestone for the Eighth Brigade, considering its modest headcount of just 2,000 fighters prior to the ceremony.

The battalion’s commander, Ahmad al-Oda, is a former leader of the opposition group Shabaab al-Sunnah, which joined the revolution in 2011. Al-Oda is also rumored to have participated in recruiting Syrian fighters to assist Libyan warlord Khalifa Hifter. As Foreign Policy Magazine reported, it was Col. Alexander Zorin who oversaw the recruitment drive for Hifter's forces. In 2016 Zorin served as the Russian Defense Ministry’s envoy to the Geneva-based task force and visited the south of Syria in early April. According to sources among the Russian military who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, however, Zorin’s April visit had nothing to do with recruiting new fighters for Hifter but was concerned instead with negotiations regarding the Iranian presence in Syria and the release of prisoners. As a result, the Russian military opened a station in Daraa to collect information on prisoners detained by Damascus directly from their relatives. The measure’s real purpose appears to be a largely symbolic gesture of reconciliation. According to local lawyers, the Central Committee — a body that unites rebels who accepted the reconciliation pact — already issued Russia the list of detainees it sought.