reuters | Accompanied by Assad, Putin visited the Old City of Damascus including, the 8th-century Umayyad mosque and an ancient church.
"I think Putin is there to reinforce the Russian
position in Syria and with the person of Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, especially as Iran's position has been indelibly weakened,
since Soleimani was essentially Iran in Syria," said David Lesch, an
expert on Syria.
Though Iran and Russia worked
together to beat back the anti-Assad insurgency, tensions have
occasionally surfaced between them on the ground, where analysts say
they have been vying for influence.
Putin is due to hold talks on Wednesday with President Tayyip Erdogan
in Turkey, which has sent forces into much of northern Syria to beat
back Kurdish-led forces that had been backed by the United States.
Putin's previous trip to Syria was in 2017, when he visited Russia's Hmeymim air base.
Putin told Assad that much had been done to restore Syrian statehood,
while Assad thanked Putin for his assistance in restoring peaceful life
in Syria, Russia's Interfax news agency reported, citing the Kremlin. Putin will visit several facilities in Syria during the trip, it added.
Soleimani, the Iranian general killed last week, had played a
critical role in supervising Iran-backed ground forces to support the
Syrian government during the war and coordinated with Moscow ahead of
its intervention in 2015.
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