The Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been in meetings with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, in order to thank him for the Russian air strikes.
This is Assad’s first foreign visit since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, and came three weeks after Russia launched a campaign of air strikes against positions in Syria, both belonging to Islamic state and to Free Syrian Army. The strikes have bolstered Assad’s forces.
The Kremlin, which said it had invited Assad to visit Moscow, kept the visit quiet until Wednesday morning, broadcasting a meeting between the two men in the Kremlin and releasing a transcript of an exchange they had.
