Syria’s President Al-Sharaa meets Putin in Moscow for the first time after Assad regime’s fall

Syria’s President, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, traveled to Moscow for his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, October 15, 2025.

The meeting is the first between the two leaders since the dictatorial regime of Al-Sharaa’s predecessor, Bashar al-Assad, was ousted by rebel forces in December 2024. Putin had long backed the Assad regime.

Following his overthrow, the former Syrian leader fled to Russia, where he and his family were granted asylum for “humanitarian reasons,” according to an official Russian source.

Despite his previous support for Assad, Putin insisted on Wednesday that the Russian-Syrian relationship, which he said has been “exceptionally friendly” for more than 80 years, has “never been tied to our political circumstances,” claiming it is “always… guided by one thing: the interests of the Syrian people.”

The Russian leader called the overthrow of the Assad regime a “great success and a step toward societal consolidation,” and expressed that Syria’s most recent parliamentary elections “will strengthen cooperation between all political forces” in the country.

Al-Sharaa stated that his country is “re-establishing relations with all regional and global countries” and that “bilateral relations and common interests… connect us with Russia.” He added that a “large part of the energy sector in Syria depends on Russian expertise.”

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Alexander Novak, later affirmed that Moscow is ready to support Syria’s reconstruction after years of civil war. “We discussed specific projects in energy, transport, tourism, healthcare, and cultural and humanitarian areas,” Novak told reporters, adding that Russia is “ready to provide support and participate in the reconstruction of Syria.”

The talks follow a period of “difficult times” in Syria, which included days of violence earlier this year in southern Syria where hundreds of people were killed in clashes that began between members of the Druze minority group and Bedouin tribes.

 The conflict drew a military intervention from Israel, which stated it wanted to protect the Druze and struck several government buildings in Damascus before a ceasefire was agreed upon.