On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that during Kerry's meeting with Putin in Moscow on December 15, the Russian leader said that Assad could take part in the presidential election in 2017.
“No, this is untrue,” Peskov told journalists in response to the validity of information on Putin’s alleged statement during a meeting with Kerry on the need for Assad’s participation in the upcoming elections.
Peskov added, however, that the situation in Syria was discussed between the two.
During his visit in Moscow, Kerry discussed with Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a wide range of international issues, including the ongoing efforts to solve the Syrian crisis, the situation in Ukraine as well as efforts to defeat the Islamic State (IS or Daesh) extremist group, which is outlawed in both Russia and the United States.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the United States and some of its allies have been supporting the so-called moderate Syrian opposition, while urging Assad to resign, despite his landslide victory in 2014 elections. Russia recognizes the Syrian president as the legitimate authority in the country and maintains that Syrian people should be free to chose their leadership without outside intervention.
