Putin says ready to talk to US President-elect Donald Trump

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was ready to talk to US President-elect Donald Trump, and said Russia was getting stronger.

When asked at his annual press-conference what he was going to offer to Trump, Putin said that he didn’t know when the two of them would meet.

In a question about the Russia’s war in Ukraine – or as the Kremlin calls it, a “special military operation” – where the president is asked if “victory is any closer”.

Putin said the situation is “changing drastically” and that Russian soldiers are “regaining territory” by square kilometre every day.

“Warfare is complicated… but we are getting closer to solving our primary tasks of the special operation,” he tells the audience.

Russia has had a military foothold in Syria since the Cold War in the early 1970s, and Putin doesn’t want to lose it. He’s suggesting Russia’s two bases in Syria could be put to humanitarian use.

When Syria’s civil war started in 2011, Putin decided to give full support to dictator Bashar al-Assad, so Russia built up its base at the port of Tartous and established an airbase further up the Mediterranean coast at Hmeimim.

Syria’s new rulers haven’t yet said whether they want the Russians out, but there have already been signs of at least a potential partial withdrawal.

The two bases are a vital hub for Putin, not just for maintaining Russian influence in the Middle East but also for supporting Russian paramilitary operations in Africa.

Putin told his audience that Assad’s downfall is not a “defeat” for Russia, but if he loses his two bases in Syria it certainly would be.