
The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov passes within a few miles of Dover, in the southeast of England as a fleet of Russian warships sail through the North Sea, and the English Channel Friday Oct. 21, 2016. (Gareth Fuller/PA Wire (Associated Press)
The whole Syria must be “liberated,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said in a television interview on Saturday.
“There are just two options: Assad sitting in Damascus or the Nusra sitting in Damascus,” Dmitry Peskov said, referring to Jabhat al-Nusra, a terrorist group that renamed itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
Peskov also dismissed demands for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s departure as “thoughtless.”
The statement came after the US State Demartment officially announced that the US-led coalition was not going to fight the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group because it was not the ‘goal’ in Syria.

