6 October 2016, 18:56 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee, said this week that deliberations over the agreement authorizing a Russian air group to be stationed at the Hmeimim airbase for an unspecified period would come as early as next Wednesday.
On Monday, a source in the lower house, the State Duma, said that the Russia's lower house of parliament could ratify the agreement as early as Friday, October 7.
The Hmeymim airbase agreement was signed in Damascus on August 26, 2015, and was submitted to the State Duma for ratification in early August 2016.
Russia began its air campaign against the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria on September 30, 2015, at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
