Russia Stages Concert in Recaptured Palmyra Amphitheater

MOSCOW -- Russia's famed Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra is playing today in a Roman amphitheater in Palmyra today in a surreal propaganda exercise triumphing the recapture of the ancient city by Syrian government forces.

Syrian troops retook Palmyra from ISIS militants in late-March under the cover of Russian airstrikes and artillery.

Now, Moscow has dispatched the Mariinsky orchestra from St. Petersburg, one of Russia's most celebrated classical troupes -- second only to the Bolshoi Theater -- to play in Palmyra's amphitheater that was constructed over 2,000 years ago by the Roman Empire.

Russian state television trailed the concert today in a highly produced video, titling the event "A Prayer for Palmyra." Video from the colonnaded amphitheatre showed a platform for the orchestra set up amid the desert ruins.

Palmyra is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the sprawling well-preserved remains of an ancient city that was once Syria's most popular tourist attraction. ISIS forces seized the city last May and began dynamiting some of its architectural sites that the terror group believes were idolatrous.

After the city's recapture, the Russian military de-mined the historic site, removing thousands of ISIS booby traps, according to the country's defense ministry.

Russia has been supporting its ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebels in the country with a ferocious air campaign, aided by with advisers on the ground.

Moscow and the Assad regime have hailed the recapture of Palmyra as a symbol of how their campaign is rescuing civilization in Syria. Today's concert seemed intended to underscore the idea.

The amphitheater, where Roman Emperor Nero once had a statue of himself placed, was used as an execution site by ISIS, which released a video showing the massacre of 25 people on the spot where the Russian musicians will play tonight.

As the concert was being prepared, fighting continued across Syria and Assad pledged that his forces would eventually achieve victory over rebels in Aleppo, despite a 48-hour truce brokered by the United States there Wednesday.

In an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin that was broadcast by Syrian state media, Assad compared the battle for Aleppo to the Russian struggle for Stalingrad in World War II and said only "victory over the aggression" there was acceptable.

Russian aircraft in Syria have been accused by international rights groups of indiscriminately bombing hospitals in rebel areas and causing hundreds of civilian casualties. Rebel groups last week blamed Russia for airstrikes on a hospital in Aleppo that killed at least 27 people.

Although Aleppo was quieter today, rebel groups reported shelling in villages near the city, according to The Associated Press. ISIS fighters, meanwhile, seized the Shaer gas fields in the desert near Palmyra, the first advances by the group there since the city was retaken, Reuters reported.

Staging musical concerts on the sites of its military successes is becoming a signature move for the Kremlin. Valery Gergiev, the controversial Mariinsky conductor directing the Palmyra performance, also led the orchestra when it played in the breakaway republic of South Ossetia after Russian troops routed Georgian troops in a 2008 war there.

Popular Russian singers have also held concerts in Crimea and eastern Ukraine after pro-Russian rule was established there.