Putin says Moscow achieved its goals in Syria, promises to ask Assad about missing U.S. journalist
During Vladimir Putin’s year-end press conference on Thursday, NBC journalist Keir Simmons asked him about Russia’s role in Syria. Putin dismissed any suggestion of Russian failure, asserting that Moscow had achieved its objectives there and that the groups opposing Bashar al-Assad’s regime had “undergone internal changes.”
Putin emphasized that the Russian authorities maintain relations with all factions in Syria and claimed that most countries in the region support Moscow’s continued presence at its bases there.
When Simmons asked if Putin would ask Assad — who fled to Moscow and was granted asylum after his regime collapsed — about American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria 12 years ago, Putin said he had not yet met with Assad but promised to “definitely” raise Tice’s case.
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