Speaking at the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on Tuesday, the statesman stressed that the ISIL controls large parts of Syria and Iraq and openly declares its plans against Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem and the expansion towards Europe, Russia, Central and Southeast Asia.
He insisted to the leaders of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, members of the CSTO along with Russia, that the operations of the ISIL are not limited to the Middle East, because extremists trained in terrorist squads return to the European Union (EU) and the former Soviet republics.
Extremists from many countries, including unfortunately the Europeans, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, are receiving ideological and military training in the ranks of ISIL, warned Putin, as quoted by the news agency TASS.
Referring to the Kremlin's concern, the Russian leader considered obvious that without the participation of the government and the army of Damascus it is impossible to wipe out the terrorists in the country and the region, or protect the multiethnic and multi-faith Syrian people from the extermination, the slavery and the barbarism.
In this sense, Putin reiterated Moscow's support to Syria in its fight against terrorism.
“We provide technical-military aid to Damascus and will continue to do so; we are calling on other countries to join us in this,” he reaffirmed.
The chief of Kremlin stressed that the Syrian government, the Kurdish self-defense and the moderate opposition, as well as other countries in the region, should join forces against the terrorists.
Putin rejected attempts to blame Moscow of the flow of Syrian refugees into Europe, as if the problem "had been caused by the fact that Russia supports the legitimate power in Syria," he said.
The main reason that the Syrian people are fleeing are the fighting 'driven largely from the outside,' as well as the atrocities of the terrorists, he said.
If Russia did not support Syria, the situation in the country would be worse than in Libya, and flow of refugees would be even greater, concluded the Russian leader.
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