Russia 'Already Complicit' In Assad’s Crimes, U.S. Says

The United States said Monday it believes Russia had 'a lot to answer' to the Syrian people, as the toppled dictator Bashar Al-Assad fled Moscow after 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of his family's rule, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"You have seen Russia prop up a brutal regime that has murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians, that has gassed its own people. You have seen the Russian Government launch strikes targeting civilians inside Syria.  And now, most recently, you see Russia giving safe haven to the brutal tyrant responsible for those attacks," State Department's spokesperson Matthew Miller told a daily briefing.

The spokesperson went on to add that the russians "certainly have a lot to answer for with individuals across Syria about their history of supporting Assad and their own pattern of behavior inside Russia, and it would not surprise me at all if people in Syria are asking those questions when it comes to the Russian facilities that remain inside Syria."

Asked by TURAN whether Russia would be considered as complicit in Al-Assad's war crimes if it refused to hand over the dictator to the international justice system, Miller said: "I think Russia is already complicit in Assad’s crimes against the Syrian people. I don’t think you need any more – any further actions by Russia to prove their complicity."