The United States expect that Russia

Russia has influence on the Syrian government and can help in the peaceful settlement of the crisis, said the US special envoy on Syria, James Jeffrey.

According to Jeffrey, “Russia has enough levers of pressure,” and “survival” of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is “completely independent” from the Russian authorities. “We therefore expect that Russia would take Assad to the negotiating table”, — said the politician.

He also suggested that “the influence of Russian” due to the “flexibility” of Assad, which made the likelihood of a political settlement of the conflict. At the same time, Jeffrey said that the U.S. does not believe Russia “decided to move from the military to the political”, and suggest that the Russian authorities are “still mulling” the question.