Meeting of minds

Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Bashar al-assad on the Syrian leader’s trip to Moscow. The Russian president is hoping to gain diplomatic clout by mending ties between Assad and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who severed links with Damascus shortly after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Assad yesterday offered support for Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and said his visit would mark “a new facet” in his country’s ties with Russia.