PAMLOMO-SAUTI YA JAMII

Vladimir Putin announces withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria Patrick Wintour in Geneva and Shaun Walker in Moscow The Russian president, Vladimir Putin , has abruptly declared that he is withdrawing the majority of Russian troops from Syria, saying the six-month military intervention had largely achieved its objective. The news on Monday, relayed personally to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, in a telephone call from Putin, followed a meeting in the Kremlin with the Russian defence and foreign ministers. He said the pullout, scaling back an intervention that began at the end of September , is due to start on Tuesday. His move was clearly designed to coincide with the start of Syrian peace talks in Geneva and will be seen as a sign that Russia believes it has done enough to protect Assad’s regime from collapse. Syria's civil war: five years of Guardian reporting Read more Putin said he had ordered his diplomatic staff to ste...