Putin says Russia created conditions for peace process in Syria, "opened road to peace"

MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. Russia has created conditions for the peace process in Syria, "opened the road to peace," Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting with military personnel in the Kremlin. "We have created conditions for the beginning of the peace process. We managed to establish constructive and positive cooperation with the U.S. and a number of other countries, with responsible opposition forces inside Syria, which indeed want to stop the war and find the only possible political solution to the crisis. And it was you, Russia’s soldiers, who opened the road to peace," Putin said. According to the president, the amount of work handled by Russian aircraft has dropped significantly after an agreement on cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government forces and the opposition was reached. The number of sorties decreased three times - from 60-80 to 20-30 per day. In this connection, the aviation group created earlier became redundant from the military point of view, Putin noted. "The decision on the withdrawal of a substantial part of our military personnel and equipment has been coordinated with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who was informed in advance about our plans and supported them," Putin said. Read more