In a marathon press conference, Putin says he is ready to meet with Trump and is open to talks on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he has yet to meet exiled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad – although he himself decided to give the dictator and his family asylum when the veteran Syrian dictator fled the country after the fall of his regime.

He said this at an annual press conference and question-and-answer session, where he fielded questions from journalists in the audience and Russian citizens who submitted their questions in advance.

The topics ranged from Syria, Ukraine, the Russian economy and Putin’s relationship with US president-elect Donald Trump, all part of a carefully recorded show that lasted more than four hours.

Putin, who said he has not spoken to Trump in four years, said he is ready to meet with the incoming US president, who has repeatedly vowed to end the war in Ukraine as soon as he takes office on January 20.

While most of the questions from the audience came from journalists affiliated with the Russian state media, NBC’s Keir Simmons asked Putin if he was willing to compromise when it came to Ukraine – a question the Russian president did not fully answer.

“We are ready,” Putin said without giving details. “We need the other side to be ready, too. Through dialogue and compromise.”

The Kremlin has repeatedly said it will not negotiate with Ukraine unless it renounces its desire to join NATO and withdraw troops from areas now under Russian military control.

Kursk

Putin was also asked about Russia’s battle to retake several hundred square kilometers of Kursk region, which Ukraine took control of after a lightning strike in western Russia in August.

He said the Russian military is fighting to retake Kursk, but there is no firm date when they will “liberate” it.

“The situation [at the front] it changes a lot. There is movement on every front line every day,” he said.

He noted that the campaign to Ukraine should have started before February 2022, and said that Russia should have “prepared it systematically.”

Although he went on to praise the heroic efforts of the Russian military, there was no mention of the thousands of North Korean soldiers that Ukraine and the US say are fighting the Russians.

At least 100 of them have been killed according to a South Korean lawyer who revealed information from the country’s spy agency on Thursday.

Russian media reported that two million Russian citizens submitted questions before Putin’s press conference on topics ranging from the cost of living, housing prices and what Russia called its “special military operations.”

The economy

The first question was about The Russian economygiven the soaring inflation rate driven by the country investing in the war effort. Across the country, there has been concern over rising food and grocery prices.

Putin admitted that the rate of inflation, which is more than nine percent, is a “scary” figure but said that the government’s measures to cool the economy are working. He said economic growth is expected to be four percent this year and will slow down in 2025.

“I think so [growth rate] next year it should be two to 2.5 percent, which is a kind of soft landing to maintain macroeconomic indicators,” he said.

in Syria

Putin was asked about Russia’s presence in Syria, where it has two major military bases, the Hmeimim airbase and a naval base in the port of Tartous.

Satellite images show that Russia is in the process of moving some of its weapons, but Putin said that Russia has proposed that its “partners” use the airbase for humanitarian purposes.

The future of the airbase, which was used to launch strikes across Syria in support of Assad, is now in question, as the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, has taken control of Damascus, ousting the Assad government from Russia. spent years supporting.

“On the whole, we have achieved our goal,” Putin said while talking about the bases. “We maintain relations with all the groups that control the situation there,

He also criticized the seizure of Israeli lands in that country, and said he believed that Israel had no intention of withdrawing its troops from Syria.

American journalist Austin Tice

During the press conference, Simmons asked Putin if he would talk to Assad about the disappearance of US journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria in August 2012.

Putin replied that Tice is a person who disappeared 12 years ago during the civil war but then he said that he would ask Assad about the American if the two spoke.

Tice, a former US Marine, was one of the first US journalists to enter Syria after the war began.

US President Joe Biden said earlier this month that the government believes Tice is still alive. It was hoped that Tice would be found among the thousands of people released from prisons in Damascus.