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Russia is not supplying weapons to Syrian Kurds — diplomat

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said he had no information of the Russian ambassador having been summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, October 15./TASS/.Russia is not supplying weapons to Syrian Kurds, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Thursday.

"No, of course not. I don’t have such information, I have great doubts," said Bogdanov, Russian president’s special representative for the Middle East and Africa, in reply to a reporter’s query.

Bogdanov also said he had no information of the Russian ambassador having been summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said previously, in particular, that Moscow established contacts with the Iraqi Kurds through the Iraqi government. "As for Iraq, we have said more than once that when it is necessary to support the joint efforts of the central government of Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan in the fight against terrorism, we are doing that with consent of and through the Iraqi government," Lavrov said. "The developments have shown only one thing: all who are combating terrorism should gather together."

He said on Wednesday, commenting on Turkey’s statements that Moscow allegedly supplies weapons to Kurds in Syria that Russia was rendering military support to the governments of Syria and Iraq in the fight against terrorists. "We are rendering support in the fight against terrorism in the military-technical cooperation sphere to central governments of, in particular, Iraq and Syria," Lavrov said.