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RUSSIA

France says Russia can’t stop lying about Syria

France on Monday accused Russia of constantly lying over its role in Syria, saying it was claiming to battle IS group militants when it was only interested in backing Bashar al-Assad.

France says Russia can't stop lying about Syria
Syrian pro-government forces patrol Aleppo's Sheikh Saeed district, on December 12th 2016, after troops retook the area from rebel fighters. Photo: AFP

Another round of Russia-US talks on ending the bloody conflict made no progress at the weekend as the Syrian president's forces closed in on the last
pockets of rebel resistance in Syria's second city, Aleppo.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the talks failed “because there is double-talk and a sort of permanent lie” on the part of Russia.

“On the one hand they say: let's talk, let's talk and get a cease-fire,” Ayrault said as he arrived for a regular meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels.

“On the other hand, they continue the war and this war is a total war, aimed at saving Assad and capturing Aleppo,” he said.

Ayrault said Russia had concentrated so much effort on Aleppo that it had allowed Isis jihadis to recapture the ancient city of Palmyra, revealing
Moscow's real priorities in a conflict which has cost more than 300,000 lives.

Isis overran Palmyra on Sunday, nine months after being expelled by Assad forces backed by massive Russian air attacks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cancelled a planned trip to Paris in October after French President Francois Hollande said Syria would be the only item on the agenda. 

RUSSIA

Russia announces no New Year’s greetings for France, US, Germany

US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year's greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Russia announces no New Year's greetings for France, US, Germany

As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.

But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

“We currently have no contact with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis,” he added.

Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

While Kyiv’s Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

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