Who’s the real action hero? Putin meets Hollywood star Steven Seagal as he claims to have secured deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to call snap elections
- Hollywood actor is said to be one of Putin's favourite celebrity icons
- Russian president said Bashar al-Assad is ready to hold snap elections
Vladimir Putin
shook hands with Hollywood actor Steven Seagal in bizarre scenes in
Russia today as he claimed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ready to
hold snap parliamentary elections and could share power with a 'healthy'
opposition.
Seagal
- said to be one of Putin's favourite celebrity icons - was
photographed with the president outside Russia's first ever Eastern
Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok.
The
action hero is among the Western celebrities who have socialised with
Putin and praised him, as well as Russia, despite the deep chill in
diplomatic relations between Moscow and the West.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin
shakes hands with movie actor Steven Seagal at the Russia's first ever
Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok
Vladimir Putin speaks with Steven Seagal who is said to be one of the president's favourite celebrity icons
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Russia, along with Iran, has been Assad's principle international ally in the war that has raged in Syria for four-and-a-half years and has claimed a quarter of a million lives.
Moscow
has made clear it does not want to see Assad toppled and has seized on
gains made by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq to urge his foreign foes,
including the United States and Saudi Arabia, to work with Damascus to
combat the common enemy.
'We
really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight
terrorism and extremism,' Putin told journalists on the sidelines of the
Eastern Economic Forum, saying he had spoken to U.S. President Barack
Obama on the matter.
'We
are also working with our partners in Syria. In general, the
understanding is that this uniting of efforts in fighting terrorism
should go in parallel to some political process in Syria itself,' Putin
said.
'And
the Syrian president agrees with that, all the way down to holding
early elections, let's say, parliamentary ones, establishing contacts
with the so-called healthy opposition, bringing them into governing,' he
said.
Moscow
wants the U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes on Islamic State
positions to coordinate with the Syrian and Iraqi armies and moderate
anti-Assad rebel groups on the ground, as well as Kurdish forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech at the Russia's first ever Eastern Economic Forum (EEF)
Assad's
enemies have refused to cooperate with Damascus, fearing that would
help legitimise his rule in Syria, where the West and Gulf states say he
is part of the problem, not the solution, and must go.
A
flurry of recent high-level diplomatic contacts have so far failed to
yield a breakthrough with the question over Assad being the main point
of contention.
'If
it's impossible today to organise joint work directly on the
battlefield between all those countries interested in fighting
terrorism, it's indispensable to at least establish some sort of
coordination between them,' Putin said.
He
noted that the chiefs of general staff of armed forces of countries
'sitting close' to the conflict visited Moscow recently on that. He gave
no details.
Earlier
this year, Seagal was spotted at Russia's biggest ever Victory Day
military parade on the Red Square, and last year he was
pictured pictured touring a Russian arms fair, days after playing a
controversial concert in the Crimea.
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