Al-Sharaa meets Putin as Russia seeks to secure military bases in Syria

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Kremlin has not indicated whether it volition hold to al-Sharaa’s repeated requests for Bashar al-Assad’s extradition.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is gathering Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin successful Moscow arsenic the second seeks to unafraid a subject beingness successful the state pursuing the toppling of erstwhile Kremlin state Bashar al-Assad successful 2024.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed up of Wednesday’s gathering that talks would absorption connected “the beingness of our soldiers successful Syria”, who are located astatine the Hmeimim airbase and Tartus naval basal connected Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

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Earlier this week, the Kremlin reportedly withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airdrome successful Kurdish-held northeast Syria, leaving it with lone its 2 Mediterranean bases – present its lone subject outposts extracurricular the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Moscow has been moving to physique relations with al-Sharaa since his rebel forces toppled longtime ruler al-Assad successful December 2024, aiming to guarantee its continued subject beingness successful the country, which serves to bolster its power successful the Middle East.

Pragmatic approach

Despite Putin’s backing of al-Assad with extended subject support, the caller rulers successful Damascus person taken a pragmatic attack to relations with Russia, allowing Moscow to clasp a beingness astatine its aerial and naval bases.

Al-Sharaa struck a conciliatory code during his first visit to the Kremlin successful October, but Russia’s sheltering of al-Assad and his wife, who fled to Moscow aft the rebel uprising, remains a thorny issue.

Peskov declined to bespeak whether the Kremlin would hold to al-Sharaa’s repeated requests for the erstwhile president’s extradition.

Putin volition beryllium particularly keen to support his country’s beingness successful Syria, having mislaid another ally this month, erstwhile the United States sent special forces to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The US, which cheered al-Assad’s demise, has fostered ever-warmer ties with al-Sharaa, astir precocious during fighting betwixt the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the military.

A fragile ceasefire is present successful spot and has been mostly holding.