MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Terrorists in the Middle East and Northern Africa are somehow successfully trying to use the results of the attempts to "export" democracy into the region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
"Terrorists, not without success, are trying to take advantage of the destruction of the government systems and the results of, frankly speaking, clumsy democracy exports experiments in the Middle East and North Africa. Now everyone is talking about it," Putin said at a meeting with Russian ambassadors.
He added that the terrorists managed to acquire chemical weapons like it happened in Syria where at the moment "the outcome of the fight with Daesh is being decided."
Since the beginning of the Syria civil war, the United States and some of its allies have supported the moderate Syrian opposition, calling for President Bashar Assad's resignation, while Russia and Iran recognized Assad as the only legitimate Syrian authority.
