MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a session of the Russian Security Council on Friday, discussing the situation in Syria’s Idlib and the outbreak of coronavirus in China, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed.
"A detailed exchange of opinions was held in relation to the aggravation of tensions in Idlib due to the activity of terrorist groups," he said. "Coronavirus was discussed as well in the context of its influence on global economy trends."
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Presidential Chief of Staff Anton Vaino, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergei Naryshkin, as well as Special Presidential Representative for Nature Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergei Ivanov took part in the meeting.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted a rise in tensions in the Idlib de-escalation zone in the past few weeks. The Russian and Turkish military attempted to establish a ceasefire in the region, however, terrorist attacks persisted. As a result, military specialists from Russia and Turkey were killed. On February 10, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan informed of casualties among the Turkish military in Idlib. In response, the Turkish military hit 115 targets of the Syrian army, neutralizing 101 Syrian soldiers. Ankara announced deployment of additional forces to the area. Earlier, Russian and Turkish diplomats held talks on Idlib in Ankara, with Moscow expecting to continue the discussion in the near future.
On December 31, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan - a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people. The source of the outbreak is the COVID-19 coronavirus. The disease spread to 24 more countries apart from China - Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a global health emergency.
Currently, the total number of people infected with coronavirus exceeds 63,800 in China with 1,380 people reported to have died from the disease. Meanwhile, over 6,700 people are said to have recovered from it.