Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa will reportedly visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, for the first time since the fall of Russian-backed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
AFP cites an unnamed official – who was not authorized to speak to the media – as saying that the visit “will include President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the foreign minister, and military and economic officials.”
According to AFP, an unnamed foreign ministry official confirmed that the visit will take place and that the two presidents will meet personally while al-Sharaa is in Moscow.
The topics under discussion are said to include “economic issues related to investment, the status of Russian bases in Syria, and the issue of rearming the new Syrian military.”
Relations between Russia and Syria have been strained since al-Sharaa took power. His predecessor, Bashar al-Assad, fled to Russia in December 2024 after it became apparent that his 14-year dictatorship was about to collapse.
In April this year, it emerged that Moscow had declined a request from Damascus to extradite al-Assad back to Syria to face justice for his crimes, which include the extrajudicial killing, torture, and forced disappearance of thousands of Syrians.
Syria’s new leader said at the time he had offered to allow Russia to maintain its military presence in the country in exchange for al-Assad’s extradition. Despite the Kremlin’s refusal to accept this bargain, al-Sharaa hinted that his army’s reliance on Russian weapons meant that he could not rule out the possibility of military cooperation with Russia in the future.
Russia’s access to Khmeimim Air Base and Tartus Naval Base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast – an important foothold in the Middle East and Africa – has been severely limited since the fall of Assad. In 2015, Russia intervened militarily to support the Syrian dictator in his bombardment of the rebels.
However, diplomatic channels between the two countries have remained open. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov visited Damascus shortly after al-Sharaa took power. In July, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani returned the visit.
However, Ukraine and Syria normalized diplomatic relations on Sept. 24, after Syria’s new government officially recognized the independence of Ukraine’s occupied territories from Russia.