The Kremlin confirmed on Thursday that strongman Vladimir Putin engaged his Syrian counterpart, jihadist President Ahmed al-Sharaa, on Russia’s interest in maintaining its two military bases in the country.
Sharaa made a historic first visit to Moscow this week, meeting Putin in person on Wednesday. The exchange was anticipated as a tense and difficult interaction given Putin’s longstanding support to the decades-old Assad family regime in the country, which Sharaa and his al-Qaeda offshoot, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), toppled in December. Former dictator Bashar Assad fled Damascus on December 7 and has taken refuge in Moscow, where rumors suggest he has taken an interest in video games. Putin provided both diplomatic and military support to Assad, meaning Russia’s bases were strongholds actively fighting against HTS and similar Sunni anti-Assad groups.
Following the end of the Assad regime, Sharaa abandoned his jihadist nom de guerre, “Abu Mohammed al-Jolani,” and stopped wearing jihadi fatigues, opting for Western-style suits. While still defending the establishment of an Islamist government, Sharaa has emphasized in his public statements a desire to attract foreign investment into the country, particularly from the West and Gulf neighbors such as Saudi Arabia.
Through Saudi Arabia, Sharaa secured multiple in-person meetings with American President Donald Trump, who has referred to the jihadi leader as “attractive” and promising, vowing to lift sanctions imposed on the Assad regime to allow Syria to do business with the world. Sharaa has emphasized that he hopes to see private American and other Western investment participate in post-war reconstruction in his country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) listens to Syrian Leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) during their meeting at the Kremlin, October 15, 2025, in Moscow, Russia. Vladimir Putin hosts Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in his first visit to Russia. (Contributor/Getty Images)
While Syrian state media indicated that this was also the primary topic of discussion between Sharaa and Putin, Kremlin top spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin discussed Russia’s military bases in the country. Peskov offered few details, according to the Russian news agency Tass, stating only, “that topic was on the agenda.”
Russia maintains two military bases in Syria, in the port city of Tartus and in western Latakia province. The bases played a significant role in helping Assad fight the over-decade-long civil war against HTS and similar groups that ended in December. Tass, the Russian news outlet, claimed that Putin has attempted to address concerns regarding the use of those bases against the new regime by offering them to help bring military aid into some of the most devastated areas in the country.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the Sharaa government’s news outlet, did not mention the military bases in its coverage of Sharaa’s visit. It instead quoted Sharaa celebrating the “long-standing historical relation” between Moscow and Damascus, glossing over that decades of that relationship involved support for Assad and his father, late former dictator Hafez al-Assad.
“Syria and Russia share a long-standing historical relation, along with bilateral ties and mutual interests in several fields, including Syria’s energy sector, which heavily relies on Russian expertise,” Sharaa reportedly told Putin.
Sharaa did state that his government would “respect all past agreements,” failing to exclude agreements allowing the military bases to operate in that promise.
Speaking to Tass, Russian experts described those military bases as a priority for the Putin regime.
“Moscow needs a foothold in the Mediterranean for logistics and power projection there and in Africa,” Nikolay Sukhov, senior researcher at the Center for Middle East Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations, was quoted as saying. “Damascus needs a new legal and financial framework for cooperation, not one associated with Assad’s legacy.”
Syria, in turn, needs foreign investment for reconstruction.
SANA reported that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak promised that investment support following the meeting between Putin and Sharaa.
“Our companies are interested in using Russian equipment inside Syria, and this topic was discussed extensively during the meeting between Presidents Putin and Al-Sharaa,” Novak said. “We are ready to provide support and participate in Syria’s reconstruction process.”
“The official also affirmed Russian interest in developing Syria’s transportation infrastructure and rehabilitating the energy sector,” SANA reported.
The friendly exchanges between the HTS regime and Putin and his cronies in Moscow was especially notably this week given the warm embrace Sharaa gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Zelensky was keen to establish a relationship with Damascus after cutting ties with Assad, noting that the Syrian people had also suffered military assaults by the Russians.
As in his many other meetings with foreign leaders, Sharaa appeared to request reconstruction support from war-torn Ukraine. Zelensky obliged in his public statement following his meeting with the Syrian leader.
“During our negotiations with President of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa, we also discussed in detail promising sectors for developing cooperation, security threats faced by both countries, and the importance of countering them,” Zelensky said. “We agreed to build our relations on the basis of mutual respect and trust.”
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