Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered his armed forces to start pulling out of Syria today after a six-month campaign, saying they had largely met their objectives and it was time to focus on peace talks.
The announcement comes as external powers seek common ground for turning a tentative cessation of hostilities in the civil war into a political solution, efforts that have long been hampered by Moscow’s support for Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad.
Russia’s military intervention, which began in September, changed the course of the Syrian conflict; before the Kremlin sent in its bombers, Mr Assad’s forces were losing ground to various armed rebel groups.
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