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 Nearly four years into a war that has killed more than 200,000
people and displaced millions, even the Russian hosts accept there
is little chance of a breakthrough at the conference, spurned by
most opposition groups.
No senior Russian officials are due to take part but one senior
official said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov might join the
conference later this week if the initial signs are good.
"If they all gather and the atmosphere is constructive between the
representatives of the government and opposition delegations, it's
possible there will be a meeting with Minister Lavrov and all of
them on Wednesday," Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told
reporters as delegates gathered at the ministry residence in Moscow.
The initial talks in Moscow will be between opposition groups.
Syrian government representatives are expected to join only on
Wednesday, the penultimate day of the conference.
 Russia's longstanding proposals for a peace plan do not require its
ally President Bashar al-Assad to leave power, though his main
opponents consider this the basis for any talks.
The United States is publicly committed to removing Assad has not
objected to the conference and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
had said he hopes they can prove useful.
Asked about the Moscow talks, Assad told Foreign Affairs Magazine:
"What is going on in Moscow is not negotiations about the solution;
it's only preparations for the conference."
He said many countries had no interest in the conference succeeding
and wanted them to fail, but added: "I wouldn't say I'm pessimistic.
I would say we have hope, in every action."
Opposition figures are attending as individuals rather than as
representatives of major factions. Many are thought to be from a
Damascus-based official opposition tolerated by Assad and viewed as
traitors by his armed enemies.
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None of the main Sunni Muslim insurgent groups fighting on the
ground was invited.
The main opposition alliance, the Turkey-based National Coalition
for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, once touted by
Western and Arab countries as a government in exile, is boycotting.
Monzer Akbik, a National Coalition representative, said the Moscow
talks were "an initiative to reinvent the Assad regime in another
form" and that Russia was not an honest broker for peace because it
supports the Syrian government.
In the four years of fighting, two U.N. mediators have hosted high
profile conferences in Geneva, only to quit in frustration after
talks failed to yield meaningful progress.
(Additonal reporting by Oliver Holmes and Sylvia Westall in Beirut,
and Dasha Afanasieva in Istanbul, Writing by Timothy Heritage;
Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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