Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was in Moscow and held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation in Syria, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Assad "came on a working visit to Moscow" on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reportedly said. He returned to Damascus on Wednesday.
Assad had sought Russia's military help in Syria to fight the Islamic State, and the Russian Air Force began airstrikes in the war-torn country on 30 September.
The move had come to cause further political friction between Russia and the United States, which has accused Russian airstrikes of targeting Syrian rebels that have been trained and equipped by the CIA.
According to Russian news agency Sputnik International, the talks between Assad and Putin were "quite long and the topic of negotiations was completely clear".
"President Putin was informed in detail by his Syrian counterpart about the current state of affairs in Syria and the long-range plan," Kremlin said, according to RT.com.
"Naturally, the talks focused on fighting terrorist extremist groups, carrying on with the Russian operation, and support for the Syrian army's offensive," it added.
Bashar al-Assad's visit to Moscow was unannounced. This was his first foreign visit since the civil war began in Syria in 2011.
