MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/. Moscow’s calls for refraining from operations in Syria have nothing to do with the FIFA World Cup but are in line with Russia’s consistent efforts to resolve the Syria issue, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a TASS question.
"It has nothing to do with the World Cup, it is in line with Russia’s consistent efforts aimed at calling on countries and encouraging them to adopt a balanced position and prevent actions that could lead to dangerous consequences and destabilize the situation, which is already fragile," the Russian presidential spokesman said.
The Israel Hayom daily said earlier that Russia had called on Israel not to conduct any operations in Syria during the FIFA World Cup. According to the newspaper, in the past several weeks, Moscow informed countries active in Syria that it expected them to maintain a low level of activity on the Syrian territory for the duration for the World Cup.