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Speaking in the
Kremlin at a medal ceremony for military personnel who served in
Syria, Putin sought to dampen any talk of a rift with Damascus,
saying Moscow's partial withdrawal from Syria had been agreed
with President Bashar al-Assad.
Although he stressed his preference for a negotiated diplomatic
solution to the conflict, he made clear Russia could easily
scale up its forces again.
"If necessary, literally within a few hours, Russia can build up
its contingent in the region to a size proportionate to the
situation developing there and use the entire arsenal of
capabilities at our disposal," said Putin.
The Russian leader on Monday ordered the bulk of the Russian
military contingent in Syria to be pulled out after five months
of air strikes, saying the Kremlin had achieved most of its
objectives.
Russia would finish withdrawing most of its Syria aviation
strike force "any day now" and no later than by the end of this
week, Viktor Bondarev, the head of the Russian air force, told
the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in an interview published on
Thursday.
(Reporting by Denis Dyomkin, Andrew Osborn, Katya Golubkova and
Dmitry Solovyov; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian
Lowe)
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