Syria’s Sharaa meets Putin in Moscow for first time since Assad’s fall

Syria’s interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has held his first talks with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow since ousting Russia’s ally Bashar al-Assad 10 months ago.

Putin spoke of the “special relationship” between both countries.

Sharaa suggested he would continue to allow Russia access to its military bases in Syria.

He was also expected to ask for the extradition of Assad, who was granted asylum after fleeing to Moscow.

For years they were enemies, on opposing sides of a bloody civil war.

Putin used brutal military force to prop up Bashar al-Assad. And Sharaa’s armed Islamist group led the rebel offensive that eventually forced Assad from power.

But on Wednesday, the Russian and Syrian leaders sat down together for the first time, putting pragmatism ahead of past enmity.

“Over the past decades, our countries have built a special relationship,” Putin said.

He added that there were “quite a few interesting and useful undertakings” on the agenda of their talks, and that Russia stood ready to “do everything to fulfil them”.

Sharaa said he wanted Syria to re-establish its relations with all countries, but “chiefly with Russia”.

“We are trying to restore and redefine in a new way the nature of these relations so there is independence for Syria, sovereign Syria, and also its territorial unity and integrity and its security stability.”

They were warm words from two men seeking a good working relationship.

Russia wants continued access to its Tartous naval port and Hmeimim military airbase on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

Sharaa suggested he would allow this, saying Syria would “respect all agreements concluded throughout the great history” of their bilateral relations.

In turn, he wants help to consolidate his power in Syria, secure its borders and rescue a parlous economy with access to Russian energy and investment.

Russian ministers said they were ready to deliver foodstuffs and medication to Syria, and to help repair damaged power and transport infrastructure.

But amid the smiles, tensions remain.

Syrian sources said Sharaa would ask for Assad to be extradited so the exiled leader could face trial for war crimes. It is thought unlikely Russia would agree.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that Russia had granted asylum to Assad because he and his family had “faced the risk of physical elimination”.