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Press TV has conducted an interview with Eric Draitser, founder of stopimperialism.com from New York, about Russia raising concerns about Saudi Arabia’s plans to provide the militants in Syria with advanced arms.

- Mr. Draitser, just how much will this tip the balance of power in favor of the ... [militants] in Syria?

- Well it is certainly going to make a significant dent in what the ... [militants] are trying to do on the ground. It is also going to force an escalation in the violence because of course the Syrian military will have to respond in kind and certainly their allies in Iran, in Russia are going to have to get involved as well because otherwise they are going to create an international spread of this terrorism.

Remember that the Russians understand full well what Saudi Arabia is doing both inside of Syria and elsewhere. The Russians are all too acquainted with Saudi terror networks and terror financing in the Caucasus region. The Saudi royal family and its intelligence apparatus has longstanding ties to the Dokka Umarov organization and some of the other terror groups in Dagestan, in Chechnya and all throughout the Caucasus region.

And of course there is also the recent news questioning whether or not Prince Bandar is still in the driver seat or whether there is a transition in the Saudi authority with regard to the terrorist networks.

So there is a lot of writing on this and the Russians are certainly looking at Syria and attempting to block whatever negative developments might occur in that country because as it stands right now the Russians see that the status quo is that President Assad and his government remains firmly entrenched and that the terrorist so-called rebels are not able to gain any significant ground. So certainly Moscow is concerned about these developments.

- How much will these ... [militants] gain the upper hand? How much with these machinations in place giving the upper hand to topple the government in Damascus?

- Well we have seen what the so-called MANPAD anti-aircraft missiles can do. We saw what happened after the fall of Gaddafi as those MANPAD weapons were dispersed throughout Northern Africa. They can certainly help the...[militants] to attack commercial airliners. They can certainly help the...[militants] to attack Syrian military air force, aircrafts and also we hear word that the Saudis are looking at providing anti-tank weaponry which could to at least some degree neutralize some of the on the ground gains that the Syrians are making using their tanks and artillery.

So from a strategic perspective this can certainly tip the balance and from a political and a geopolitical perspective it can change the equation and that is precisely why the Kremlin is so concerned.

- And of course we know that the more the escalation in the violence, the more problems we will have with the refugee problem. Just how serious can the refugee problem get?

- Well it can get incredibly serious considering the fact that the refugees are now causing a destabilization over the border in Lebanon.

Remember that the refugee issue is a humanitarian issue but it is also a security issue because under the cover of refugees you have a lot of these terrorists who go back and forth across the borders.

This is precisely what Hezbollah has talked about with regard to southern Lebanon. This is precisely what the Turkish opposition has talked about along the border with Turkey. So we have seen that the refugee situation absolutely is a humanitarian crisis but it also creates a regional security issue and further regional destabilization.