Two sources told Reuters that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa had asked, at a meeting in Damascus on January 29, to cancel loans taken from Russia during the rule of Bashar al-Assad.
Syria, which was largely debt-free before the war, now has foreign liabilities of between $20 billion and $23 billion, Finance Minister Mohammed Abzaid said last month, without specifying how much of that debt was owed to Russia.
During the three-hour meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Syrian officials raised another key issue, Assad’s extradition to the Syrian authorities, but only in general terms, suggesting that it would not be a major obstacle to restoring relations if he were not extradited, one of the sources said.
A senior Russian official said Russia would not agree to extradite Assad, and had not been asked to do so.
