Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
for talks in Moscow on Wednesday, as the Kremlin seeks to secure the future of military bases vital for its operations in the Middle East.
Russia was a key ally of Sharaa’s predecessor Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war.
His toppling at the hands of Sharaa’s rebel forces dealt a major blow to Russia’s influence in the region and threw the status of its prized military bases in Syria into doubt.
Putin has been working to build relations with Sharaa since, though Russia’s continued sheltering of Assad and his wife in Moscow remains a major obstacle to improving ties.
"Much has been accomplished in terms of restoring our interstate relations," Putin said in a televised meeting with Sharaa.
"We have closely monitored your efforts to restore Syria’s territorial integrity and I want to congratulate you on the momentum this process is gaining," Putin said, apparently referring to Sharaa’s recent offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria’s northeast.
Sharaa, in his second meeting with Putin since coming to power, said Russia had a "historic role not only in Syria’s unity and stability, but in that of the entire region."
Neither mentioned Russia’s military presence in Syria, though Putin’s front man Dmitry Peskov said earlier he had "no doubt" the issue would come up in their talks.
Russia has two remaining military outposts in the country, the Hmeimim airbase and Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
They are Russia’s only two official military bases outside the former Soviet Union.
The Kremlin withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held northeast Syria earlier this week.
Syria has expressed a willingness to cooperate with Moscow, though it has repeatedly demanded that Russia extradite Assad.
US President Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...on Tuesday praised Sharaa as "highly respected" and said things there were "working out very well."
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