MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday cautioned against outside interference in the Syrian conflict and warned against behaving "like a bull in a china shop."
"Of course we condemn violence from whichever side it comes, but we must not behave like a bull in a china shop. We need to allow people to decide their own fate independently," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying.
The Russian strongman, who is standing for a third presidential term on March 4, spoke after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for talks in Damascus on Tuesday.
Talking to religious leaders during his presidential campaign, Putin drew parallels with Libya, saying that violence after the killing of its leader Moamer Kadhafi demonstrated the "awful consequences of outside interference, most of all when it is armed."
"No doubt we should give the peoples of these countries an opportunity to decide these problems independently," he was quoted as saying, referring to Syria and Libya.
"Our task is to help them do it without any outside interference."
Lavrov at a news conference earlier Wednesday pointedly sidestepped a question from a reporter who asked him whether Russia had asked Assad to go.
He said the Syrian people themselves must decide his fate and called for Syrian opposition forces to start negotiations with Assad's government to come up with a solution to the conflict that was acceptable to all Syrians.
Moscow sparked Western anger last week by joining Beijing in using its veto at the Security Council to block UN action against the Damascus regime, in what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called a "travesty."
Lavrov defended Russia's decision to reject the latest draft resolution, saying Moscow had prevented opposition armed units from taking control of more cities in Syria.
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