"When it comes to Russia's own interests, they lay first and foremost in preventing many trained and prepared militants with combat experience from infiltrating Russian territory. In this sense, we cannot say that we resolved 100% of tasks, but in general we did. We have fulfilled the task that we had set for ourselves in Syria," Putin said.

After Syrian border guards were stationed at the Syrian-Turkish border, more information became available on who stays in camps, he added. "We know that there are hundreds of militants who came from Russia, several thousand from CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries. And how many were destroyed? Not less than that, maybe even more," he stressed.

Putin reminded that after Russia started actively supporting the legitimate government in Damascus, 90% of the country's territory was liberated from terrorists. "Not only liberated, but also returned under the control of the legitimate government. We have achieved what we had set out to do," he noted.

The Russian leader added that the US government and President Donald Trump have also contributed to the fight against terrrorism in Syria, but unbiased observers will be able to recognize Russia's role in this process. "When it comes to the US contribution to the fight against terrorism in Syria, they did contribute. We should recognize that, as well as the contribution made by President Trump. However, before Russia came and took active part in this, the international coalition did not achieve any significant results in several years," he said.

Political process in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he hopes that the process of political settlement in Syria will help improve relations between the country's government and opposition.

"I really hope that in the course of the political process in Geneva, in the course of working on amending or adopting a new Syrian constitution, the situation will improve, and the relations between the government and opposition will be established, and significant new solutions will be found to improve the situation in the country in general," he said. The Russian leader also said he hopes that political dialogue will help "fully restore Syria's territorial integrity."