These intersections are not numbered in Russia. A picture is worth a thousand words. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. 5 "Whoever controls this road can control the commercial movement between these two cities  [Damascus-Aleppo]," Anas Tracey, a Syrian reporter living in Idlib, tells The M5 highway is also critical in linking Syria with the Jordanian border and in the recent past to Turkey's southern city of Gaziantep, an industrial hub and a centre for imports and exports. The majority of the 3.5 million population in Idlib are displaced refugees from other conflict areas in Syria and no longer have anywhere else to go. 4 Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry announced earlier today in Moscow that “a vital transport corridor in Syria — the M5 highway linking the besieged northern capital Aleppo with Syria’s southern cities (Hama, Homs and Damascus) — has been liberated from terrorists.”

"It became a small Syria without Assad," says Shamy describing Idlib and the surrounding provinces which have yet to fall into the clutches of the regime.The international community has largely remained silent as a humanitarian crisis unfolds in Idlib - an impending crisis that has been As the last stronghold of the Syrian revolution, the continuous bombing "not only threatens the lives of the people living there but also threatens the hope of democracy and freedom for future Syria" says Shamy.The Assad regime and its allies, however, have used the Astana and Sochi process to freeze different conflict areas and go after rebel areas one area at a time.

Syrians living in regime-recaptured territories previously opposed to Assad have repeatedly faced Whereas the Assad regime has seen its resources depleted, critical infrastructure destroyed, human capital has fled or been killed. The M5 motorway has further critical extensions to the port of Tartus, home to Russia's only naval base in the Mediterranean, and Latakia, the home of the Assad family clan and Russia's largest electronic eavesdropping post outside its territory.

The stretch of the highway between Moscow and Yaroslavl is part of the In the 18th century, Arkhangelsk lost its significance, and the road was badly maintained. Photo by Xinhua/Getty Images. "Even as the Assad regime consolidates its hold over critical infrastructure, the country is unlikely to ever return to the same social and political borders it once had.Many of the remaining opposition-held areas, whether in Afrin, Idlib or the outskirts of Aleppo, hold ordinary Syrians who don't want to live under the Assad regime and the brutality of its secret service and may not want reconciliation.

"Russia is trying to rearrange things in Syria to convince the world that the problems in Syria are over and that Assad won against the 'terrorists'," adds Hawali.In rebel-held Idlib however, the so-called "terrorists" that bear the brunt of Assad's liberation are civilians. It passes Moscow, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Vologda, and Arkhangelsk Oblasts. The road runs north of Moscow across a distance of 1271 kilometres through Mytishchi, Pushkino, Sergiyev Posad, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov the Great, Yaroslavl, Danilov, Gryazovets, Vologda, Kadnikov, Velsk, Kholmogory, and Arkhangelsk, ending up in the city of Severodvinsk. The Russian route M5 (also known as the Ural Highway) is a major trunk road running across a distance of 1879 km from Moscow to the Ural Mountains. Were it not for the M5 motorway running directly through the town it may have been spared.The M5 highway has been a critical road map of destruction as the regime seeks to establish a semblance of sovereignty over Syria and, more importantly, to connect to Aleppo, formerly an economic hub. "It is difficult for me to accept that both Russia and the Assad regime want the highways for industry or for an economic purpose, there is no industry in Syria since 2011, most of the factories were destroyed by bombing, no fuel in Syria now, no agriculture as before," says Hawali.The recent Assad regime offensive and capture of Saraqib, a town at the intersection between the M4 and M5 in Idlib province, was a strategic coup.Not only did the regime open up a critical part of the M5 motorway leading to North Aleppo but also west to the M4 highway leading to Jisr Al Shughur one of the largest cities in Idlib province and still under rebel control from there to Latakia.Beyond the strategic importance of the highway for anti-regime rebels, controlling the M5 would have meant the physical collapse of the authority of Syrian regime leader Bashar al Assad.Lina Shamy, a Syrian activist, studying and living in Istanbul speaking to The grinding military machine of the Assad regime oiled by its allies has resulted in Damascus becoming close to taking back control of Syria, with the support of Russia and Iran and "marketing the regime as the key to stability" and to "regain legitimacy in the international community" adds Shamy.Even as the Assad regime connects the M5 with Aleppo, it won't be for economic reasons. 3 "If the regime controls these two highways, it means that the regime defeated the opposition politically and on the ground.