MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a briefing for top officials ahead of the G20 summit that opens Thursday in the northwestern Russian city of St. Petersburg, Putin’s spokesman said.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting, attended on Wednesday by parliamentary speakers, the presidential chief of staff, the interior, foreign and defense ministers, the Federal Security Service chief and other senior officials, also touched upon the situation around Syria.
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Wednesday to give President Barack Obama the authority to use military force against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack last month.
The head of Russia’s parliamentary committee on international affairs, Alexei Pushkov, said Sunday Obama would use the upcoming gathering of the Group of 20 major economies in St. Petersburg to declare justification for a US attack on Syria.
Russia has urged all parties to the conflict to use diplomatic means to resolve it.
