Vladimir Putin asked Bashar al-Assad to goJust weeks before his death on January 3, Colonel-General Igor Sergun, director of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, was sent to Damascus on a delicate mission.
The general, who is believed to have cut his teeth as a Soviet operative in Syria, bore a message from Vladimir Putin for President Bashar al-Assad: the Kremlin, the Syrian dictator’s most powerful international protector, believed it was time for him to step aside.
Mr Assad angrily refused.
Деталі тут:
http://www.ft.com/intl/s/0/735b4746-c01f-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2.html#axzz3xyhwZG79
