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Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for talks successful Moscow connected Wednesday (January 28, 2026), arsenic the Kremlin seeks to unafraid the aboriginal of subject bases captious for its operations successful West Asia.
Russia was a cardinal state of Mr. Sharaa's predecessor Bashar al-Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civilian war.
His toppling astatine the hands of Mr. Sharaa's rebel forces dealt a large stroke to Russia's power successful the portion and threw the presumption of its prized subject bases successful Syria into doubt.
Mr. Putin has been moving to physique relations with Mr. Sharaa since, though Russia's continued sheltering of Assad and his woman successful Moscow remains a large obstacle to improving ties.
"Much has been accomplished successful presumption of restoring our interstate relations," Mr. Putin said successful a televised gathering with Mr. Sharaa.
"We person intimately monitored your efforts to reconstruct Syria's territorial integrity and I privation to congratulate you connected the momentum this process is gaining," Mr. Putin said, seemingly referring to Mr. Sharaa's caller violative against Kurdish forces successful Syria's northeast.
Mr. Sharaa, successful his 2nd gathering with Mr. Putin since coming to power, said Russia had a "historic relation not lone successful Syria's unity and stability, but successful that of the full region."
Neither mentioned Russia's subject beingness successful Syria, though Mr. Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier helium had "no doubt" the contented would travel up successful their talks.
Russia has 2 remaining subject outposts successful the country, the Hmeimim airbase and Tartus naval basal connected Syria's Mediterranean coast.
They are Russia's lone 2 authoritative subject bases extracurricular the erstwhile Soviet Union.
The Kremlin withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airdrome successful Kurdish-held northeast Syria earlier this week.
Syria has expressed a willingness to cooperate with Moscow, though has repeatedly demanded that Russia extradite Assad.
U.S. President Donald Trump connected Tuesday (January 27, 2026) praised Mr. Sharaa arsenic "highly respected" and said things determination were "working retired precise well".
