FT: Putin asked Assad to leave. Assad refused

In early January, Vladimir Putin asked Bashar al -Assad to resign, and the head of Syria refused indignantly from such a proposal, says Financial Times, citing his sources in Western intelligence. According to the publication, the late GRU Igor Sergun traveled to Damascus with a mission to Damascus.

According to the sources, Assad "in anger refused" to resign.

The publication clarifies that the head of the GRU went to Damascus a few weeks before his death, which the Kremlin announced on January 4.

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not comment on the FT message about the Mission of Sergun.