admincounterpart who accused President Bashar al-Assad of being deaf to pressure.
“We are calling for restraint and caution. This is our position,” Putin told a news conference, the day after his foreign minister had likened the situation in Syria to a civil war.
Russia has accused the Syrian opposition of stoking the unrest in the country, a position that has irked the West which wants Moscow to join unequivocal international pressure against Assad.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who was visiting Moscow for economic talks, issued a sterner statement against Damascus, saying Assad was ignoring international calls for reforms and an end to the lethal crackdown on demonstrators.
Despite differences over Syria, both prime ministers praised the ties between the two countries, with Fillon saying “cooperation has never been better”. Russian and French officials signed a string of bilateral documents including a declaration of cooperation in the sphere of nuclear energy and an agreement to cooperate on child adoption issues. – AFP.
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