Putin Denies Russian Defeat in Syria, Says He Plans to Meet Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
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Putin Denies Russian Defeat in Syria, Says He Plans to Meet Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday 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, 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 US journalist, Putin said he would ask Assad about the fate of US 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 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, Reuters said.
Russia, which intervened in Syria in 2015 and turned the tide of the civil war there in Assad's favor, 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 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 organizations, why are you (the West) going there? So that means they have changed."



Rubio Says US Hostage Envoy’s Direct Meeting with Hamas Was ‘One-Off’

Envoy for Hostages Adam Boehler speaks during a US hostage and wrongful detainee flag raising ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025. (AFP)
Envoy for Hostages Adam Boehler speaks during a US hostage and wrongful detainee flag raising ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025. (AFP)
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Rubio Says US Hostage Envoy’s Direct Meeting with Hamas Was ‘One-Off’

Envoy for Hostages Adam Boehler speaks during a US hostage and wrongful detainee flag raising ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025. (AFP)
Envoy for Hostages Adam Boehler speaks during a US hostage and wrongful detainee flag raising ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025. (AFP)

President Donald Trump's hostage envoy Adam Boehler's direct meetings with Palestinian militant group Hamas on the release of hostages in Gaza was a "one-off situation" and as of now "hasn't borne fruit," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday.

"That was a one-off situation in which our special envoy for hostages, whose job it is to get people released, had an opportunity to talk directly to someone who has control over these people and was given permission and encouraged to do so. He did so," Rubio told reporters en route to Saudi Arabia.

"As of now, it hasn't borne fruit. Doesn't mean he was wrong to try, but our primary vehicle for negotiations on this front will continue to be Mr. Witkoff and the work he's doing through Qatar," Rubio said, in reference to Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.

The discussions between Boehler and Hamas broke with a decades-old policy by Washington against negotiating with groups the US brands as terrorist organizations.

A senior Hamas official on Sunday told Reuters that the meetings between Hamas leaders and Boehler in recent days focused on the release of an American-Israeli dual national being held by the group in Gaza.

Boehler told CNN on Sunday that the talks were "very helpful" and, in an interview with Israel's N12 TV channel, he said that the Trump administration was focused on getting all the remaining 59 hostages out and ending the war.

Witkoff told reporters at the White House last week that gaining the release of Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old from New Jersey believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, was a "top priority for us".

Hamas carried out a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering an Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.