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Conflict in Syria

Putin says Russia will not support sanctions against Syrian leadership

The Russian president doubts that sanctions are going to help the negotiation process

© Alexei Nikolsky/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

BISHKEK, February 28. /TASS/. Moscow believes imposing new sanctions against Syria is inappropriate and will not support the proposal on the issue, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday following talks with his Kyrgyz counterpart, Almazbek Atambayev.

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"As for sanctions against the Syrian leadership, I believe that is totally inappropriate now. This does not help and would not help the negotiation process. Instead, that would hinder it or undermine trust in the course of this process," the Russian leader said.

"Russia will not support any new sanctions against Syria."

He noted that the Syrian talks in Astana ended on a positive note. Their undisputed result was the consolidation of the ceasefire and the setting up of a mechanism to monitor it. Without that it would be impossible to continue the talks in Geneva, the Russian president said. "There are some bumps in the road there (in Geneva), but we do have the Astana platform, and we can always fall back on it."

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