Agencies – Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, as the Kremlin seeks to secure the future of its military bases in the country.
Putin and al-Sharaa struck a conciliatory tone at their previous meeting in October, their first since the ouster of Moscow-ally Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
Putin praised al-Sharaa for increasing momentum towards restoring the territorial integrity of the Arab Republic after Syrian troops took swathes of territory from Kurdish forces.
“I want to congratulate you on the fact that the process of restoring the territorial integrity of Syria is gaining momentum,” Putin told al-Sharaa in the Kremlin.
But Russia’s continued sheltering of al-Assad and his wife since their ouster remains a thorny issue. Al-Sharaa has repeatedly pushed Russia for their extradition.
Al-Sharaa, meanwhile, has embraced US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday praised the Syrian leader as “highly respected” and said things were “working out very well.”
“I have no doubt that all issues related to the presence of our soldiers in Syria will also be discussed during today’s talks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday ahead of the meeting, while declining to comment on al-Assad.
Putin, whose influence in the Middle East has waned since al-Assad’s ouster, is seeking to maintain Russia’s military footprint in the region.
Russia withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held northeast Syria earlier this week, leaving it with only the Hmeimim airbase and Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast – its only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union.
“A discussion is planned on the status of bilateral relations and prospects for developing them in various fields, as well as the current situation in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said of the upcoming meeting in a statement on Tuesday.
Russia was a key ally of al-Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war.
The toppling of al-Assad dealt a major blow to Russia’s influence in the region and laid bare the limits of Moscow’s military reach amid the Ukraine war.
The United States, which cheered al- Assad’s demise, has fostered ever-warmer ties with al-Sharaa.
