MOSCOW. Sept 4 (Interfax) - Moscow said on Tuesday that it is willing "to continue intensive contacts with influential figures in the Syrian opposition."
The Russian president's special representative on the Middle East, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, met in Moscow on Tuesday with a delegation from the Coalition of Forces for Peaceful Change, a Syrian opposition group.
"The subject for the discussion was the crisis situation in Syria and prospects for its normalization. The Syrian side spoke highly of Russia's principle-based and consistent line to achieve an immediate end to any violence and to look for solutions to acute political and socioeconomic problems of the Syrian Arab Republic via a broad national dialogue without preconditions and external diktat," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"Bogdanov reiterated the willingness of the Russian side to continue intensive contacts with influential figures in the Syrian opposition in the interests of consolidating its policies on the basis of the plan of Kofi Annan and the provisions of the Geneva communique of the Action Group," it said.