Russian Federation denies it’s bombing civilians in Syria

“This refers to military operations by Russian Federation and the Syrian regime around Aleppo and recent attacks by PYD militias in North Syria”, Steinmeier said, referring to a Syrian Kurdish party and its associated militias. However, when asked to assess the chances of the deal succeeding, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answered “49 percent” in Munich Saturday.

Putin and Obama followed an global security conference in Munich last week, where top Russian officials warned that relations between the Kremlin and the West were descending into Cold War-style confrontation amid the Syria crisis.

“There is no evidence of our bombing civilians, even though everyone is accusing us of this”, he told the conference, sitting next to Valls.

Lavrov said: “if we are moving closer to practical goals of (a) truce, then without cooperation between the military nothing will work out”.

The Russian prime minister also emphasized that his country had received a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad to help in ending the terror conflict and that this gave Moscow a legal basis to intervene.

France led worldwide criticism of Russia on Saturday for bombing civilians in Syria, a charge Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev rejected as major powers bickered openly just a day after they agreed a pause in combat in Syria.

Later, Stoltenberg told The Associated Press in an interview that all of NATO’s moves had been made in response to Russian aggression.

After days of negotiation, diplomats from a group of countries, including the US, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, agreed on Friday to seek a temporary “cessation of hostilities” in Syria within a week.

At the end of his speech, the Russian Prime Minister said, that the meeting between the Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis was a shining example of rapprochement between the two Christian churches. Of Medvedev’s comments about a new Cold War, she said: “It’s nothing about cold. Russia’s rhetoric, posture and exercises of its nuclear forces are aimed at intimidating its neighbors, undermining trust and stability in Europe”, Medvedev added. “It is already very hot”.

Both leaders supported the tasks of achieving ceasefire and delivering humanitarian aid, while agreeing to intensify cooperation through diplomatic and other channels to implement the agreement reached at the ISSG meeting.