– Russian President Vladimir Putin said any new constitution that is drawn up for Syria should guarantee the rights of all ethnic and religious groups.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of heads of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan October 11, 2019. Putin was speaking in an interview with Arab broadcasters, including Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV, on his first visit to Saudi Arabia in over a decade. He said that Syrians “interact positively” with Russian military police and military stationed in the country and that most military police in Syria are Muslims drawn from Russia’s north Caucasus region. Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s war.