RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin fiercely defended Moscow’s military assistance to the Syrian government yesterday.

Speaking at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation of former Soviet republics in Tajikistan, Mr Putin urged other nations to follow Russia’s example and offer military support to President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

“We are supporting the government of Syria in the fight against a terrorist aggression, are offering and will continue to offer it necessary military-technical assistance,” he said

“Without an active participation of the Syrian authorities and the military, it would be impossible to expel the terrorists from that country and the region as a whole, and to protect the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Syrian people from destruction.”

The Russian president said that Mr Assad was ready to conduct political transformations and engage a “healthy part of the opposition,” but added that “pooling forces in the fight against terror takes priority now.”