Putin: too early to speak about sheltering Assad in Russia

Putin reiterated Russia’s position that it was supporting al-Assad, a longtime ally, in an effort to avert a failed state scenario like in Libya.

While Putin refused to speculate on a possible Moscow’s role in helping to remove Assad, he indicated that it would not be too hard for Moscow to do.

“We gave asylum to Snowden and that was more hard than granting shelter to Assad [would be]”, Putin said, according to the transcript of the second part of the interview published Tuesday on the Kremlin’s website.

President Obama has resolved that Assad must leave, which has been a point of contention with Russian Federation, one of Assad’s most ardent supporters.

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Putin also said his country would “resist” North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey if that country threatens Russia’s national security, referring to Turkey shooting down a Russian warplane in November on the accusation that the plane flew into Turkish territory.

Putin, who has been backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against the Islamic State, added that Russian military will be assisting parts of the Syrian opposition to fight back the Islamic State as well.

“Once the stabilization of the country has progressed, a constitutional reform has to follow, and then early presidential elections”.

Though Mr Assad had made “many mistakes” since the conflict began in 2011, he said, the fighting “would never have escalated to such a degree if it had not been supported from overseas through supplying money, weapons and fighters”. It’s a complicated process, of course.

When asked if Russian Federation would grant asylum to Assad should the Syrian leader be forced to leave his country, Putin responded by comparing the situation to that of American defector Edward Snowden. “I think he was sending a signal about where he stands” that was consistent with what Russian officials have been telling the U.S.in private, the official said.

He said instead, the military were fighting against those who took arms against the government.

He hit out at NATO’s expansion towards Russia’s borders after the Soviet Union’s demise in 1991 and at an anti-missile shield being erected by the United States, accusing the West’s expansion after the Cold War of exacerbating global crises. Now Russia and the USA are cooperating to end five years of civil war in Syria, which has killed more than 250,000 Syrians and led millions more to flee their homes, provoking the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

Those remarks have prompted guffaws from critics who say a transition remains far away in the distance given the continued violence plaguing the country, and the significant logistical and political challenges of holding elections and securing a ceasefire between the Assad regime and the fractious opposition.