MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - The results of the Syrian elections reflect the will of the country's majority and confirm certain enhancements of the position of Bashar al-Assad's government, Russian State Duma international affairs committee head Alexei Pushkov said.
"The results of the elections do not contradict, but rather confirm the tendency that Assad's government managed to stabilize itself and even to enhance their positions to a certain extent. In any case, we do not see these positions weakening and the results confirm this," Pushkov told Interfax on Thursday when commenting on the victory of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the elections.
"The reason why Assad was elected again and the reason of support for his government is that Syrian citizens fear that radical Islamist forces will come to power if the current government collapses and they do not trust the so-called democratic opposition, which is financed and provided with arms from abroad and which for many years was not in Syria but outside it," Pushkov said.
The opposition is unlikely to claim that it represents the majority of the nation, Pushkov said. Trust and political support levels of opposition leaders who are not well-known are quite low in Syria, that is why many citizens do not see a real alternative for Assad, he said.
Russian monitors were at the Syrian elections and they have no issues with what they saw, the Duma committee head said.
At the same time, Assad did not expect that the West's stance regarding him would change and Western reaction to the results of the Syrian elections was predictable, he said.
"Western countries assume their purely political conceptions. I do not think that they are interested in any declaration of will by the Syrian people with the exception of one, which will confirm the West's choice in favor of supporting armed opposition in the country. And since such support of the majority is impossible, the West denied the results of these elections and elections themselves whatever they are," Pushkov said.
The election results will be taken into account outside the states, which are part of the Friends of Syria Group, he said.
"I have no doubt that they will be taken into account in Beijing and in a number of countries, which assume that quite difficult situation formed in Syria, that throughout two years and six months armed opposition failed to dismiss President Assad and his government, that Assad's government has recently had several quite convincing victories, and that the area of militant operations has decreased," Pushkov said.
The election results are an important factor confirming that change of regime does not occur in Syria and that Assad has great potential to maintain power, he said.
"I remember that two years ago U.S. President [Barack] Obama said that Assad's days are over. As far as I understand, the White House is still counting these days. But it does not appear that balance of forces is changes in favor of armed opposition," Pushkov said.
"Apparently it can be said that a certain status quo in the confrontation changed in the past months in favor of Assad's government," he said.