Meetings that gathered a number of Alawite sect representatives with Russian officials outside Syria have raised real concerns in Damascus, according to the Russian news website, Rei.
The site stated in a report that Russian journalist Igor Infariov confirmed that one of the Syrian participants in these meetings revealed to him that he had received threats from the Syrian regime, after meeting his Russian counterparts.
Lawyer Isa Ibrahim, an advisor to the Civil Work Movement, said the Assad family feared losing its status as the sole representative of the Alawite sect.
Ibrahim - who was recently invited to a meeting at the headquarters of the Russian diplomatic mission to the United Nations in Geneva, to discuss the fate of Syria in the next stage - confirmed that he had received "direct threats" of assassination from the regime in Damascus.
The Syrian lawyer says that some parties in Damascus have vowed to take revenge, because of what the regime considered to be crossing the "red lines", through his contacts and meetings with Russian officials.
According to Ibrahim, the Syrian regime sees these meetings as a threat to its position as the sole representative of the interests of the Alawite sect, especially as it comes to the most prominent ally of Damascus, both militarily and politically.
The site pointed out that the reports indicate that Russian diplomats are looking forward to holding meetings with all the conflicting parties in Syria, to learn about the different positions and visions about the future of the country, while sticking to the centralization of the country and not dividing the country.
Ibrahim stressed that the Russian side has become very unhappy with the growing feeling within the Alevi community, and the belief of its representatives that the Russians are defending only the Assad regime, not the people and the Syrian state as an entity.
According to the site, the pressures exerted by the authorities on the Alawite sect naturally generated an anti-president current from within his sect, and it is not unlikely that the situation will get worse after the public dispute between President Bashar al-Assad and his cousin Rami Makhlouf, who is subject to great pressure and faces charges of corruption.
For his part, Al-Alawi journalist Bassam Al-Youssef believes that the meetings Russia holds with the Syrian opposition factions pave the way for broader negotiations to define the future of Syria.
Al-Youssef affirms that Russian diplomacy is currently seeking to settle differences between the various spectrums of the Syrian opposition, in order to launch the political process and ensure their participation in a final solution to the crisis in the country.
The Russian site believes that Moscow's position on the regime of Bashar al-Assad in light of the current situation is shrouded in mystery, as Moscow has long declared its desire for a transition of power in Syria, but without providing a clear vision of how to transfer.
The site concluded that the threats to the participants in the Geneva meetings with Russian officials from the Alawite sect, it is likely that Damascus realized that Moscow wanted to make a real change in the composition of power.