Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa shaking his hand with Vladimir Putin on the collected photo

MOSCOW, Jan 28, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will meet 
Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, as the Kremlin 
seeks to secure the future of its military bases in the country.

Putin and Sharaa struck a conciliatory tone at their previous meeting in 
October, their first since Sharaa's rebel forces toppled Moscow-ally Bashar 
al-Assad in 2024.

But Russia's continued sheltering of Assad and his wife since their ouster 
remains a thorny issue. Sharaa has repeatedly pushed Russia for their 
extradition.

Sharaa, meanwhile, has embraced US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday 
praised the Syrian leader as "highly respected" and said things were "working 
out very well."

Putin, whose influence in the Middle East has waned since Assad's ouster, is 
seeking to maintain Russia's military footprint in the region.

Russia withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held 
northeast Syria earlier this week, leaving it with only the Hmeimim airbase 
and Tartus naval base on Syria's Mediterranean coast -- its only military 
outposts outside the former Soviet Union.

"A discussion is planned on the status of bilateral relations and prospects 
for developing them in various fields, as well as the current situation in 
the Middle East," the Kremlin said of the upcoming meeting in a statement on 
Tuesday.

Russia was a key ally of Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war, 
launching air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria controlled by Sharaa's 
Islamist forces.

The toppling of Assad dealt a major blow to Russia's influence in the region 
and laid bare the limits of Moscow's military reach amid the Ukraine war.

The United States, which cheered Assad's demise, has fostered ever-warmer 
ties with Sharaa -- even as Damascus launched a recent offensive against 
Kurdish forces long backed by the West.

Despite Trump's public praise, both the United States and Europe have 
expressed concern that the offensive in Syria's northeast could precipitate 
the return of Islamic State forces held in Kurdish-held jails.