Bashar Assad arrived in Moscow on an official visit on Tuesday, accompanied by a large delegation of ministers | Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad will touch on Damascus-Ankara relations at talks in Moscow, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. "Undoubtedly, the topic of Syria-Turkey relations will be touched upon today in one way or another," the spokesman said, responding to a question on how the Russia-Syria talks would affect the probability of Assad’s meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ● According to Peskov, the heads of state will discuss bilateral relations and the settlement of the Syrian crisis. "So, first of all, they will discuss bilateral Russia-Syria relations, then cooperation on the Syrian settlement as such, with an emphasis on the absolute sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country," he pointed out.

■ President al-Assad lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow (SANA)(VIDEO)
■ President Bashar Assad Arrives in Moscow on an Official Visit (Syria News)(VIDEO)
■ Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity represent a priority for Russia, says Peskov (Syria Times)
■ Al-Mikdad, Lavrov discuss bilateral relations, regional and international issues (Syria Times)

If this was in Tehran, Moscow or Hong Kong, the UNSC would be urgently meeting to discuss humanitarian intervention and sanctions. But it’s Paris, nothing to see here. pic.twitter.com/lEJBhbomMa

— Hadi Nasrallah (@HadiNasrallah) March 12, 2023

Berlin was “humiliated” by Washington during the Nord Stream sabotage controversy, senior security official Nikolay Patrushev has said | Germany is facing an inevitable economic decline after losing its access to Russian energy, but cannot do anything about it because it is not a sovereign nation, the secretary of the Russian National Security Council has claimed.💬 “Germany tried for many years to build its economy on a combination of cheap Russian energy and advanced German technologies. Like no one else, it realizes that the terrorist attack against the [Nord Stream pipelines] will definitely cause the German economy to decline further,” Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview published in Argumenti i Fakti newspaper on Monday. ● The advantages that German businesses enjoyed by getting access to Russian fuel has long irritated the governments of the US and the UK, he continued. But Berlin is not at liberty to continue cooperating with Moscow, “because the German nation is not independent.” “Washington imposes on Berlin its economic and environmental agenda and keeps a 35,000-strong military force on its soil. For years, the White House controlled [former chancellor] Angela Merkel, and now it forces the German leadership to side with the version of the pipeline sabotage that is advantageous to the US authorities,” Patrushev said, describing America’s treatment of Germany as “humiliating.” ● The remarks were part of Patrushev’s comments on the sabotage of the undersea pipelines, which were built to supply Germany with Russian natural gas. The Nord Stream links were ruptured by powerful explosions last September in what Russia has called a blatant terrorist attack.