Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, December 19, 2024
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Putin says Russia not defeated in Syria, plans to meet with Assad
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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual news conference and call-in show at Gostinny Dvor in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia has not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow has made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus over Russia’s military bases there.
“You want to present what is happening in Syria as a defeat for Russia,” Putin says at his annual end-of-year press conference. “I assure you it is not… we have achieved our goals.”
Putin says he had not yet met with Bashar al-Assad but planned to meet him and said he would ask about the fate of US reporter Austin Tice who went missing in Syria 12 years ago.
“We also can pose the question to people who control the situation on the ground in Syria,” Putin says.
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