MOSCOW, March 7. /TASS/. Moscow did not seize the initiative in resolving the Syria issue, it has been just following its own path, which has proved effective, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with journalist Vladimir Solovyov, included in a documentary dubbed World Order 2018.
"The thing is that we did not seize anything. We have just been following our own path, which has proved effective and produced positive results for all," Putin said when asked how Russia had managed to seize the initiative in resolving the Syrian conflict.
While speaking about the 2017 trilateral talks on Syria, which involved Russia, Iran and Turkey, Putin said that "to a certain extent, the goal was to finalize the decisions that we had already reached, particularly those concerning the southern de-escalation zone and agreements with Israel and the United States, who were also directly involved in the talks without revealing themselves."
Putin also mentioned the joint Russian-US statement on Syria, approved on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam, which "is very much consistent with the Sochi statement."