Putin: Threats against Russian Federation in Syria must be destroyed

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that his forces are helping factions of the Free Syrian Army, a statement that could signal a shift in Russia’s policy in Syria.

President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military in Syria to destroy any threatening targets, the Interfax news agency reported Friday.

“Right now several of its units numbering more than 5,000 people as well as regular forces are conducting an offensive against terrorists in the provinces of Homs, Hama, Aleppo and Raqa”, Putin claimed.

“Russia supplies weapons to the legitimate authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic”, he said.

But the opposition groups, while agreeing a joint negotiating team for future ceasefire talks, also demanded Assad step down immediately, a potential sticking point.

Putin and his officials said before that Russian Federation had cooperated with the FSA, but the group’s representatives have denied that.

“By and large, there’s been no major change in calculus from what we’ve seen them hit, and they are largely continuing to hit opposition”, Kirby added.

The United States and its allies have accused Russian Federation of bombing the moderate Syrian opposition and using its military intervention to prop up Assad rather than targeting IS positions – criticism that Russian Federation has rejected.

Russian Federation began air strikes in Syria in September, at the request of its ally President Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Putin warned against “further provocations” without naming Turkey directly.

In addition to military action in Syria the press conference touched on issues such as nuclear strategy, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation expansion and Arctic military bases.

“I have to hear what the answers are to some questions that we have today”, he said.

The top US diplomat “will discuss ongoing efforts to achieve a political transition in Syria and related efforts to degrade and destroy ISIL”, the State Department said Friday, referring to Islamic State by one of its acronyms.

Ties between the former Cold War foes were severely strained when Russian Federation annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine previous year.

Kerry’s trip will be his second to Russian Federation this year.

Since the downing of its Su-24 warplane by Turkey on November 24, which has sparked a fierce war of words between the two sides, Russian Federation has deployed a sophisticated S-400 missile defense system at its airbase in Syria. “If we are not responding to all that they have done until now, it is not because we are afraid or because of any psychology of guilt”, Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV television.

Disagreement over which Syrian opposition groups should take part in the peace process, and a list of terrorist groups that would be excluded, is holding up the December 18 talks, said Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations, according to state news service RIA Novosti. Putin denounced the Turkish action as a “treacherous stab in the back”.