Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday held telephone calls with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and promised to send rescuers to both countries after a devastating earthquake.
“In the nearest hours, rescuers from the Russian emergency ministry will take off for Syria,” the Kremlin said. In a separate message, Moscow said Putin also spoke to Erdogan who, accepted “the help of Russian rescuers”.