At his major annual conference, the Russian president assured that the fall of the Assad regime was in no way a “defeat” for Moscow. On Thursday December 19, Vladimir Putin also indicated that he had not yet been able to speak with the former Syrian leader,

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia's military bases there.

President Vladimir Putin says that Russia had 'achieved our goals' in Syria, where it rushed to provide direct military support for Assad’s government more than nine years ago to help push back rebel