Putin said earlier on Friday Russia supports the opposition Free Syrian Army, providing it with air support, arms and ammunition in joint operations with Syrian troops against Islamist militants.
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In a speech to his top military commanders, Putin said the Russian military has provided weapons, supplies and air support to the Western-backed opposition group.
Declarations from Putin seem to be the first to affirm Moscow is truly supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s adversaries in the combat against forces from the Islamic State.
The project by Russia’s central bank is an attempt to fight back against the domination of Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch, as Moscow had slammed the decisions by S&P and Moody’s to cut Russia’s debt rating to “junk” as politicised.
Turkey, a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and of the U.S.-led coalition that is bombing Islamic State in Syria, has long called for Assad’s overthrow.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was also present at the meeting, said that Russia’s air forces have performed more than 4,000 sorties in Syria and destroyed more than 8,000 terrorist facilities since the start of the campaign.
He added that Russian Federation helped restore a tank fix factory in the Syrian province of Homs, which he said is now working at full scale.
“If you ask me whether the meeting [of Kerry] with Putin will take place, I will repeat once again that we do not rule out the possibility of such a meeting”, the state-run TASS news agency cited Peskov as saying on December 11. “Any targets threatening Russia’s (military) group or our land infrastructure must be immediately destroyed”, Putin told the generals.
Mr Putin also said was significant to develop cooperation “with all states that have a genuine fascination with ruining the terrorists”.
Ahmet Davutoglu’s comments could further harm strained relations between Moscow and Ankara, already at their worst in recent memory after Turkish forces downed a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border late last month. “If we are not responding to all that they have done until now, it is not because we are afraid or because of any psychology of guilt”, Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV television.
President Vladimir Putin says that a Russian military action in Syria is aimed at protecting Russia from extremists based there.
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