A source in the Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denied that a ministry diplomat had given an interview to a Saudi newspaper in which he stated that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ready to resign.
“[Deputy Foreign Minister] Mikhail Bogdanov has not given any interviews, especially by phone, to Saudi newspaper Al Watan,” the source in the ministry’s press service said. “This looks like an ordinary information provocation.”
A number of western media earlier cited Al Watan’s report. The newspaper quoted Bogdanov in reported speech as saying that Bashar Assad’s brother Maher lost his legs in a Damascus explosion in July and that the president may soon resign.
Al-Assad Family
A few chief editors have changed at Al Watan in the past year. Some experts describe the publication as a tabloid.
The Syrian conflict has claimed between 14,000 and 20,000 lives since March 2011, according to estimates by various opposition groups and the UN. The West is pushing for Assad’s ouster, while Russia and China are trying to prevent outside interference in the country, claiming the Assad regime and the opposition are both to blame for the bloodshed.