MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The United States agrees with Russia that terrorist organizations make up part of the Syrian opposition, but does not know how to separate its moderate elements from the radicals, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
"One of the fundamental difficulties [in Russian-US negotiations] lies in the fact that we insist – and our American partners do not deny it – that the so-called healthy part of the opposition should be separated from radical groups and terrorist organizations," Putin said in an interview with Bloomberg published on the Kremlin website.
He noted that jihadists start "absorbing the so-called healthy part of the opposition." "Among other things, it is no longer part of internal strife. These are newly arrived fighters who receive arms and ammunition from abroad."
"In fact, our American partners agree with this, but they do not know how to do it [separate radical from moderate opposition members]," Putin stressed.
