Putin denies Russian defeat in Syria, says Israel is the main winner

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin denied on Thursday that Russia's nine-year intervention in Syria had been a failure, but expressed concern about Israel's military operations there since the toppling of his ally Bashar al-Assad.

Putin, addressing multiple questions on Syria at a marathon annual news conference, said Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia's air and naval bases in the country.

In his first public comments on the subject, he said he had not yet met Assad since the former president fled to Moscow earlier this month, but that he planned to do so.

Putin played down the damage to Moscow from the fall of Assad, saying its military intervention in Syria since 2015 had helped prevent the country from becoming a "terrorist enclave".

He said Israel was the "main beneficiary" of the current situation.

Soon after Assad's fall, Israel moved troops into the buffer zone on the Syrian side of the dividing line with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of air strikes to destroy Syrian army weapons and equipment.

"Russia condemns the seizure of any Syrian territories. This is obvious," Putin said, saying Israel had penetrated to a depth of 25 km (16 miles) and got as far as fortifications that were built for Syria by the former Soviet Union.

Putin said Russia hoped that Israel would at some point leave Syrian territory, but "I have the impression that not only are they not going to leave, but they are going to reinforce there".

He said Turkey was also intervening in pursuit of its own security interests with regard to Kurdish fighters in Syria whom Ankara regards as terrorists.

"We all understand this. There will be many problems. But we are on the side of international law and for the sovereignty of all countries, while respecting their territorial integrity, meaning Syria," Putin said.

He said most people in Syria with whom Russia had been in contact about the future of its two main military bases in Syria were supportive of them staying, but that talks were ongoing.

Russia had proposed using its Hmeimim air base to deliver humanitarian aid, and had also evacuated 4,000 Iranian fighters from Syria via that route, he said.

In response to a question on the subject from a U.S. journalist, Putin said he would ask Assad about the fate of U.S. reporter Austin Tice, who is missing in Syria, and was ready to ask Syria's new rulers about Tice's whereabouts too.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Moscow buro; Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Andrew Osborn; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)