Putin Pays Historic Visit to Syria

Jan. 7, 2020 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin paid an unannounced visit today to Syria, before he heads to Istanbul for well-announced meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tomorrow. He flew into Damascus Airport, and then “travelled to the command post of the Russian Armed Forces group in Syria, where he was met by Bashar al-Assad. The two leaders heard military reports on the situation in various regions of the country,” the Kremlin reported.

It was Putin’s first visit to that nation since he sent Russian troops into Syria in September 2015 to help the Syrian government turn the tide against ISIS and the Islamic terrorists deployed by the British Empire and Barack Obama. American statesman Lyndon LaRouche identified that decision at the time as a “strategic game changer,” which would bring down Obama’s “entire policy of war provocation against Russia.”  A little over four years later, the Syrian government has recovered control over most of its territory, and reconstruction has begun—in contrast to what is happening in Libya and now Iraq.

“During his talks with Bashar al-Assad, the President of Russia noted that it was now safe to praise the long distance travelled on the way to restoring Syria’s statehood and territorial integrity. There are obvious signs of a recovering peaceful life on the streets in Damascus, Vladimir Putin emphasized,” according to the Kremlin report.

President Bashar al-Assad thanked Putin for the visit, and “expressed gratitude to Russia and the Russian military for their assistance in the fight against terrorism and the restoration of peaceful life in the republic.”

The Russian delegation, which included Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, then held a bilateral meeting with the Syrian delegation, after which the two Presidents visited the Umayyad Mosque, which is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. Putin presented the mosque with a 17th century Quran as a memory of his visit. He then visited the Mariamite Cathedral of Damascus, where he spoke with Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East.