Vladimir Putin says he has not met the deposed Syrian ruler since he fled Damascus for the Russian capital.
President Vladimir Putin says Russia has not been defeated in Syria after rebel groups toppled his ally and longtime leader. Bashar al-Assadearlier this month.
In his first public comments on the issue on Thursday, Putin said he had not yet met the former Syrian leader flea to the Russian capital, but he will “definitely talk to him” and plans to meet him in Moscow.
He mentioned that he would question al-Assad about the fate of the missing US reporter Austin Ticewhose release was described as a “top priority” by the White House.
At his annual year-end press conference, Putin also rejected claims that Russia, which intervened in Syria in 2015 and turned the civil war there in al-Assad’s favor, had suffered a loss with the fall of Assad to the former regime.
“They want to portray what is happening in Syria as a defeat for Russia,” Putin said. “I assure you that is not the case…we have achieved our goals.”
He said Russia intervened in Syria to “prevent the emergence of a terrorist enclave there” and that “it is not for nothing that today many European countries and the United States want to establish relations with them (Syria’s new rulers).”
“We maintain relations with all the groups that control the situation there, with all the countries in the region,” Putin continued, adding that “the overwhelming majority of them tell us that they would be interested in our military bases in Syria remain”.
Russia has offered to maintain bases there “for humanitarian purposes,” he said. He also admitted to evacuating 4,000 Iranian fighters after the fall of the Assad government.
Russia-Ukraine war
On the issue of the ongoing war in Ukraine, Putin said he was ready to discuss the possibility of finding a compromise in talks with US President-elect Donald Trump.
He expressed his willingness to meet Trump “at any time.”
“I don’t know when I’ll see him. He doesn’t say anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him in over four years. Of course I’m ready for it. Anytime,” he said.
Putin also noted the invincibility of the Oreshnik hypersonic missile, which Russia has already fired at a Ukrainian military factory, and said he was ready to organize another launch in Ukraine and check whether Western air defense systems could shoot it down.
“Let them designate a target for destruction, for example in Kiev, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense forces there, and we will strike there with Oreshnik and see what happens,” he said.
“We are ready for such an experiment, but is the other side ready?”
