Russia has no plans to back Assad at any cost – Medvedev

PARIS. Nov 28 (Interfax) – Russia has no plans to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at any cost, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

“Russia has no special relations with President Assad. Such relations existed between the Soviet Union and his father, but they don’t exist between our country and the incumbent Syrian president,” Medvedev said at a press conference following a meeting with his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault in Paris on Tuesday.

He noted at the same time that Moscow and Damascus are maintaining normal working relations.

“We do not seek to support such regimes no matter what it takes,” he said.

Russia, unlike some of its foreign partners, including France, believes that the conflict in Syria should be settled by the Syrians themselves, he said.

“We do not see it right to interfere in the internal affairs of such sovereign states, even if we have objections to how human rights are ensured there,” he said.

Anyway, such criticism could be addressed to both the Syrian government and the opposition, he said.

“There is blood on both of them,” he said.