http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3222581/Who-s-real-action-hero-Putin-meets-Hollywood-star-Steven-Seagal-claims-secured-deal-Syrian-President-Bashar-al-Assad-call-snap-elections.html
Vladimir Putin shook hands with Hollywood actor Steven Seagal in bizarre scenes in Russia today as he claimed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ready to hold snap parliamentary elections and could share power with a 'healthy' opposition.
Seagal - said to be one of Putin's favourite celebrity icons - was photographed with the president outside Russia's first ever Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok.
The action hero is among the Western celebrities who have socialised with Putin and praised him, as well as Russia, despite the deep chill in diplomatic relations between Moscow and the West. Russia, along with Iran, has been Assad's principle international ally in the war that has raged in Syria for four-and-a-half years and has claimed a quarter of a million lives.
Moscow has made clear it does not want to see Assad toppled and has seized on gains made by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq to urge his foreign foes, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, to work with Damascus to combat the common enemy.
'We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism,' Putin told journalists on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum, saying he had spoken to U.S. President Barack Obama on the matter.'We are also working with our partners in Syria. In general, the understanding is that this uniting of efforts in fighting terrorism should go in parallel to some political process in Syria itself,' Putin said.'And the Syrian president agrees with that, all the way down to holding early elections, let's say, parliamentary ones, establishing contacts with the so-called healthy opposition, bringing them into governing,' he said.Moscow wants the U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes on Islamic State positions to coordinate with the Syrian and Iraqi armies and moderate anti-Assad rebel groups on the ground, as well as Kurdish forces.
Vladimir Putin shook hands with Hollywood actor Steven Seagal in bizarre scenes in Russia today as he claimed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ready to hold snap parliamentary elections and could share power with a 'healthy' opposition.
Seagal - said to be one of Putin's favourite celebrity icons - was photographed with the president outside Russia's first ever Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok.
The action hero is among the Western celebrities who have socialised with Putin and praised him, as well as Russia, despite the deep chill in diplomatic relations between Moscow and the West. Russia, along with Iran, has been Assad's principle international ally in the war that has raged in Syria for four-and-a-half years and has claimed a quarter of a million lives.
Moscow has made clear it does not want to see Assad toppled and has seized on gains made by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq to urge his foreign foes, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, to work with Damascus to combat the common enemy.
'We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism,' Putin told journalists on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum, saying he had spoken to U.S. President Barack Obama on the matter.'We are also working with our partners in Syria. In general, the understanding is that this uniting of efforts in fighting terrorism should go in parallel to some political process in Syria itself,' Putin said.'And the Syrian president agrees with that, all the way down to holding early elections, let's say, parliamentary ones, establishing contacts with the so-called healthy opposition, bringing them into governing,' he said.Moscow wants the U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes on Islamic State positions to coordinate with the Syrian and Iraqi armies and moderate anti-Assad rebel groups on the ground, as well as Kurdish forces.
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