NOVO-OGARYOVO, October 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he had telephone conversations with his counterparts from the Middle East.

"I have already had a number of conversations with my colleagues from the region (the Middle East - TASS) and several more conversations are scheduled before the end of the day," Putin said at a meeting on operational issues.

Earlier, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters that the Russian president's plans for today include five international phone calls. According to him, Putin has already spoken with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian leader Ebrahim Raisi, and plans to contact his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian head of state Mahmoud Abbas, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.