Moscow: They want to present everything happening in Syria as some kind of failure for Russia but that is not the case, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. He denied that the ouster of key ally Bashar Assad in Syria had hurt Moscow’s prestige, as he took questions at his annual news conference and call-in show Thursday. He used the tightly choreographed event, which lasted about 4 1/2 hours, to reinforce his authority and demonstrate a sweeping command of everything from consumer prices to military hardware.
"In general, we have achieved our goals, and even those groups that fought at one time with the Assad regime, with government troops, they have also undergone internal changes", Putin said. "It is not for nothing that today many European countries and the United States want to establish relations with them. If they are terrorist organizations, why are you getting involved? That means they have changed, doesn't it?" he added.
Putin plans to meet Assad
In his first comments on Assad’s demise, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he hadn’t yet met the former Syrian ruler, to whom he has given asylum in Moscow. However, Putin said he has plans to meet the former Syrian President.
He said that he plans to and will ask him about Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing in Syria 12 years ago. “We also can pose the question to people who control the situation on the ground in Syria,” Putin said, in response to a question from NBC’s Keir Simmons, who cited a letter he said Tice’s mother wrote to the Russian leader seeking assistance.
Russia-Syria relations
Moscow has quickly sought to establish contacts with the rebels who ousted Assad to secure its diplomatic and military personnel and try to extend the lease on its air and naval bases in the country. But it’s unclear how much influence Russia will have in Syria going forward. Assad’s demise has dealt it a painful blow since Russia has fought for nine years to prop up the Syrian leader in the country’s civil war.
Still, Putin denied that the events had weakened Moscow, arguing that it has achieved the goal of destroying “terrorist” groups in the country set when it launched an air campaign in support of Assad in 2015.
(With inputs from agency)
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