Russia denies it asked Assad to step down
- 8 years ago
A spokesman for the Kremlin on Friday denied reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a senior intelligence official to Damascus late last year to ask Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to step down, The Guardian reports.
For a number of years the main sticking point over Syria between Russia and the west has been Moscow's insistence that Assad is the legitimate ruler of the country and must play a part in any settlement, while the west has seen Assad as part of the problem rather than the solution.
However, while Russia has not publicly ditched Assad, there have been some signals for a number of months that Moscow could be softening its position on the fate of the Syrian leader, if the Kremlin felt he could be replaced with someone acceptable to Moscow's interests, noted The Guardian .
For a number of years the main sticking point over Syria between Russia and the west has been Moscow's insistence that Assad is the legitimate ruler of the country and must play a part in any settlement, while the west has seen Assad as part of the problem rather than the solution.
However, while Russia has not publicly ditched Assad, there have been some signals for a number of months that Moscow could be softening its position on the fate of the Syrian leader, if the Kremlin felt he could be replaced with someone acceptable to Moscow's interests, noted The Guardian .