Image Credit: ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / Contributor / Getty 
In an unexpected turn of events, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin hosted Syria’s new diversity-friendly jihadi leader at the Kremlin on Wednesday. The former terrorist went by the name Abu Mohammad al-Julani before he transitioned into Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa when he began to identify as a politician.
Beyond al-Sharaa’s personal transition into a more diversity-friendly Muslim radical, he told Putin that Moscow would play a significant role in his country’s transition into the “new Syria.” The former terrorist vowed to honor all past commitments Damascus held with the Kremlin.
“Part of Syria’s food supply and many power plants depend on Russia, and we are trying to redefine the nature of our relations with it, while respecting all past agreements between the countries,” he said.
Al-Sharaa may be hedging his bets, as last month he cozied up to the West while meeting with U.S. officials at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. His warm embrace of the East threads Syria’s needle down the center of a world becoming increasingly geopolitically polarized.
Russian news detailed Wednesday’s interaction between Putin and al-Sharaa:
The two spoke at a meeting at the Kremlin ahead of extended talks. It marks the first visit of a Syrian leader to Russia since the fall of Bashar Assad’s government late last year. Al-Sharaa, who once led the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) under his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, rose to power following the departure of Assad.
Putin said that diplomatic ties between Russia and Syria “have always been friendly” since their establishment in 1944.
“Throughout these decades, we have always been guided by one thing – the interests of the Syrian people,” he said.
Al-Sharaa said that Syria continues to “build on the many achievements” that cooperation with Russia has facilitated.
The former terrorist once had a $10 million bounty on his head by the U.S. but is now welcomed as a political peer by the Washington establishment following the radical Islamic takeover of Syria in November.
Following the radical Islamic takeover of Syria, Washington lifted the majority of sanctions against Damascus and the Trump administration voiced support for the former terrorist’s efforts to “unify and stabilize” the failed state.
Only back in 2017 did the U.S. embassy in Syria plead with the world to stop the terrorist that the U.S. now openly hosts.
“Russia’s military presence in Syria – at the Khmeimim Airbase and the Tartus naval facility – was originally established with a 49-year lease signed with Assad in 2017. Moscow has remained engaged with the new Syrian leadership and continued to maintain the bases since his ouster,” RT said. “Officials in the new Syrian government have previously indicated that Damascus would be open to allowing Russia to maintain its bases, as long as their presence is advantageous to the country.”
Perhaps the thing that makes Wednesday’s meeting in Moscow the most out-of-the-ordinary is the fact that former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia following the terrorist takeover of his country late last year. Al-Assad lives in a luxury 1,000ft Moscow skyscraper where he spends hours a day playing online video games.
The new leader of Syria, al-Sharaa, who was also in Moscow on Wednesday, has an arrest warrant out for al-Assad.
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