Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends his annual end-of-year press conference and phone-in, in Moscow, Russia December 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (December 19, 2024) that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia’s military bases there.

In his first public comments on the subject, Mr. Putin said he had not yet met former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad since was overthrown and forced to flee to Moscow earlier this month, but that he planned to do so.

In response to a question on the subject from a U.S. journalist, Mr. Putin said he would ask Assad about the fate of U.S. reporter Austin Tice, who is missing in Syria, and was ready to ask Syria’s new rulers about Tice’s whereabouts too.

“I will tell you frankly, I have not yet seen President Assad since he came to Moscow. But I plan to do so. I will definitely talk to him,” said Mr. Putin.

He said most people in Syria with whom Russia had been in contact about the future of its two main military bases in Syria were supportive of them staying, but that talks were ongoing.

Russia, which intervened in Syria in 2015 and turned the tide of the civil war there in Assad’s favour, had also told other countries that they could use its airbase and naval base to bring in humanitarian aid for Syria, he said.

“You want to portray everything that is happening in Syria as some kind of failure, a defeat for Russia. I assure you, it is not. And I’ll tell you why. We came to Syria 10 years ago to prevent a terrorist enclave from being created there,” said Mr. Putin.

“On the whole, we have achieved our goal. It is not for nothing that today many European countries and the United States want to establish relations with them [Syria’s new rulers]. If they are terrorist organisations, why are you [the West] going there? So that means they have changed.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, July 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack.

The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by insurgent groups.

Assad said in a statement on his Facebook page that he left Damascus on the morning of Dec 8, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. He said he left in coordination with Russian allies to the Russian base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he planned to keep fighting.

Assad said that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to move him on the night of Dec 8 to Russia. “I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said.

“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge nor was such proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said in the English text of his statement. “The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”