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Putin Offers “Friendship” to Syria’s New Leader—the Same Man Russia Once Vowed to Destroy
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Russian leader Vladimir Putin has extended an offer of “friendship” to Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa—a man Moscow once vowed to “eliminate,” Russian media The Moscow Times reported on October 15.
During a meeting in Moscow on October 15, Putin emphasized what he described as the “decades-long friendship” between Russia and Syria, pledging to strengthen ties and maintain regular contact with the new government.
🤝 The first handshake between Putin and Syria's al-Sharaa. pic.twitter.com/ruaCwp32Sb
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 15, 2025
“Relations between Syria and Russia have always been of an exclusively friendly nature. In Russia, our relationship with Syria has never depended on political circumstances or special interests. We have always been guided by one thing—the interests of the Syrian people. We truly have deep ties with the Syrian nation,” Putin said.
Al-Sharaa, who arrived in Moscow earlier this week for a working visit, was formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the longtime leader of the Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra), an affiliate of al-Qaeda, according to the Moscow Times.
His fighters seized power in Damascus in December 2024 after the ouster and flight of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Moscow.
Just nine years earlier, in 2016, the Kremlin—through Russia’s Foreign Ministry—had branded al-Julani and his organization “monsters,” promising their destruction.
At the time, the ministry called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham “an illegal terrorist organization that seeks to create an Islamic caliphate through brutal and barbaric means,” vowing that “the fight against these monsters will continue with the support of the international community until their complete elimination.” The group was formally designated as a terrorist organization in Russia in 2020.
For years, al-Julani’s forces fought both Assad’s regime and Russian troops deployed in Syria in support of Damascus, The Moscow Times noted.
Russian warplanes repeatedly bombed the group’s positions throughout northwest Syria. But following the fall of Assad’s government and the opposition’s capture of Damascus, al-Sharaa—as he is now known—consolidated power with the backing of multiple factions that had fought against pro-Assad forces. He was later declared Syria’s interim president and formed a transitional government.
Earlier, reports emerged that Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa was expected to formally request the extradition of Bashar al-Assad and discuss the future of Russian military bases in Syria.
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