Earlier in the day, Putin said in an annual phone-in conference with the nation he hoped that the ongoing ceasefire in Syria would lead to a political process that would see the war-torn country adopt a new constitution and conduct early elections.
"Of course it makes more sense to make an agreement on the constitution and then hold the elections. It would be more clever than the other way around," Franz Obermayr, a member of the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria, said.
Last month, Syrian President Bashar Assad told Sputnik in an interview that snap presidential elections could be held in Syria if that is the desire of the Syrian people. In the 2014 Syrian presidential elections, Assad won a landslide victory, receiving 88.7 percent of the votes.
