US, Russia look for path forward on Syria

The question of Trump came during Putin’s traditional year-end presser, which ran for more than three hours and was carried across Russian TV and radio.

US Presidents have long had a complicated relationship with Putin.

On Friday, British-based watchdog the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights alleged that a Russian air strike in support of Assad’s forces had killed 32 civilians in northern Syria. “Putin respects fighters and he respects aggression and he doesn’t respect sort of calm and deliberation”, Gessen said.

While the Obama administration regarded Russia’s airstrikes in Syria gingerly, Trump was a full-throated supporter – even if Moscow has appeared to be more interested in helping prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad than fighting militants from the Islamic State group in the country.

Russian Federation and the West continue to be split on the central issue in any discussions on a political transition: the fate of Assad.

President Putin made his remarks during his televised annual news conference at which he used crude language to lash out at Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member and key USA ally in the conflict in Syria.

Russia began airstrikes to back Assad in September, but recently Russian analysts and government officials have expressed frustration with the slow speed of the offensive and ineffectiveness of the Syrian troops.

On Friday, worldwide envoys – including in particular Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – want to hear from Saudi Arabia how its efforts to mediate a rebel coalition are progressing.

Russia’s Defence Ministry has publicly opened the black box of a warplane shot down by Turkey last month, a step it hopes will help confirm its assertions that the jet did not stray into Turkish air space and was maliciously downed.

The November 24 incident has strained traditionally warm relations between Russian Federation and Turkey, and Putin said it was now “practically impossible” to overcome these tensions. “The aims of the revolution and the worldwide resolutions, we cling to them, and we will not give them up”, Hijab said.

“I was over in Moscow two years ago and I will tell you – you can get along with those people and get along with them well”. He said he wanted to lower interest rates but that this would happen only when Russian Federation could do so “in a natural way”.

In a personal moment, Putin was asked about the identity of his daughters, after a series of investigations in the Russian press revealed that a woman named Katerina Tikhonova had attained a prominent position overseeing millions of dollars in investment at a high-tech business incubator at Moscow State University.

Putin said Thursday that he wants a political solution in Syria because “there is no other way to resolve the situation”.