Interfax: Moscow ready to maintain contact with Free Syrian Army if it gets in touch with representatives – Bogdanov

MOSCOW. Oct 15 (Interfax) – Moscow is trying to get in touch with representatives of the Free Syrian Army and is ready for communication with them, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has said.

“If we find it, they are welcome to come here,” he told a press conference on Russian-Turkish relations organized by the Russian Council for International Affairs on Thursday.

“We will gladly meet both in Moscow and on any other platform, they just need to tell us where they are,” Bogdanov said.

A Russian diplomatic source told Interfax on October 12 that Moscow was attempting to get in touch with any representatives of the Free Syrian Army and would be grateful to Western partners if they helped establish contacts.

“Russia seeks representatives of the Free Syrian Army and we would be grateful if Western partners forwarded Russia information about this organization,” the source said.

However, the source also said that for the time being, the Free Syrian Army is an “ephemeral entity.”

The Western-backed Free Syrian Army opposes Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said that Russia does not consider the Free Syrian Army as a terrorist organization, is ready to establish contacts with it and has asked Washington to provide information about it.