Putin’s first reaction about Assad, the Netherlands donates half a million to destroy chemical weapons

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken out for the first time about his ousted Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. “I have not yet met President Assad since his arrival in Moscow, but I intend to do so and will also ask him about the fate of the missing American reporter Austin Tice (since 2012), he said during his annual press conference on Thursday. And the Netherlands is donating half a million euros to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to destroy possible chemical weapons in Syria and collect evidence of the weapons program. Follow all developments about the situation in Syria in our live blog.

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