No connection between Assad and people fleeing from Syria, claims Putin

Vladimir Putin said on Friday that people leaving Syria are not fleeing from Bashar Al-Assad, but from ISIS, various agencies have reported. The Russian president made his comments on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

“Of course, we know that there are different approaches to Syria,” said Putin, “but people are running away not from the regime of Bashar Assad, but from ISIS. They kill hundreds and thousands of people, burn them alive or drown them, chop people’s heads off. How are people supposed to live there? Of course, they run away.”

Asked about whether Russia is ready to take part in operations against the Syrian regime, Putin said that it is too soon to say if his forces are ready to do that. “We see what is happening now: the US Air Force is carrying out strikes,” he explained, “yet the efficiency of these airstrikes is poor. It is premature to say that we are ready to do it [too].”

The Russian president noted that his country is already providing Syria with “quite strong support” in terms of equipment, training of military servicemen and weapons. Moscow and Damascus, he added, have certain military contracts and they are being fulfilled.

Underlining the importance of fighting terrorism in all forms, he claimed that he really wants to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism. There are, he said, some discussions with Syria, other countries in the region and the world in this regard, and talks have been held with US President Barack Obama, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other leaders.