MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed with the permanent members of Russia’s Security Council the implementation of the memorandum on Syria agreed on by Moscow and Ankara on October 22 and his contacts at the Russia-Africa Summit, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"The Russian president chaired a meeting with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council. During the meeting, an array of pressing domestic issues was discussed. The president also briefed the participants in the meeting on the content of his numerous contacts on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit. [The participants in the meeting] also exchanged views in detail on the implementation of the memorandum agreed on by the Russian and Turkish presidents and the situation in Syria in general," Peskov said.
The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, speakers of both two houses of the Russian parliament Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin, Presidential Administration Chief of Staff Anton Vaino, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin and Presidential Envoy for Environment Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergei Ivanov.
On October 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a memorandum at a meeting in Sochi on joint actions aimed at resolving the situation in northeastern Syria. The document envisaged that Russian military police and Syrian border guards would enter the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border, outside the area of Operation Peace Spring, to facilitate the removal of YPG units and their weapons to the depth of 30 kilometers from the Turkish-Syrian border. Kurdish units were given 150 hours to complete the process.
On October 23-24, the resort city of Sochi hosted the Russia-Africa Summit, co-chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egypt’s head of state Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The leaders of all 54 African countries took part in the event, 43 of them were represented at the top level. Eight major African integration associations and organizations were also involved in the event. Putin held a total of 16 separate bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.
