Russian President Vladimir Putin said he plans to meet with deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad soon and will ask him about the whereabouts of missing American journalist Austin Tice.
In his annual marathon press conference, fielding questions from around Russia, Putin publicly spoke on the fall of Assad, a key Russian ally, for the first time. He revealed that he hadn’t yet met with Assad, who is currently in exile in Moscow, but that he will soon. Responding to a question from NBC News’s Keir Simmons, who cited a letter from Tice’s mother seeking Putin’s assistance, the Russian president said he would broach the matter during his meeting with Assad.
“I will definitely talk to him. I promise that I will definitely ask this question,” Putin said.
“We also can pose the question to people who control the situation on the ground in Syria,” he added.
Tice, a former United States Marine, was a freelance reporter operating in rebel-held territory in Syria in the first year of the civil war. He disappeared in August 2012, seen in a video blindfolded being led away by a militia. The U.S. government believed he was in the custody of the Syrian government until its collapse on Dec. 8.
No clear news has emerged as to Tice’s whereabouts since his disappearance. An inmate in one of Assad’s prisons who said he was in the cell across from Tice said he last saw him alive in July 2022, according to NBC News.
The collapse of the Assad government has fed hopes that Tice may be freed, but so far, he hasn’t been found. Speaking after the fall of Assad, President Joe Biden said the government believes he’s alive and “think[s] we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet.”
Another American, Christian pilgrim Travis Timmerman, was recovered in the days following the fall of Assad. He was arrested earlier in the year.
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Elsewhere, during Putin’s press conference, he downplayed the loss suffered by Russia in Syria. He decisively intervened in Assad’s favor in September 2015, allowing the government to retake most of the country. The sudden rebel offensive last month occurred while Russia was distracted in Ukraine, limiting its response. The Kremlin has reportedly been negotiating the ability to keep some of its bases in western Syria.
Putin said Russia’s 2015 goals had been accomplished, destroying “terrorist” groups. He said the rebels changed and are moderate now. The leading rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al Sham, is an outgrowth of al Qaeda, a rebrand of the Al Nusra Front.