"The dialogue highlighted Russia’s role in rebuilding trust with the Syrian people through compensation, reconstruction, and recovery," a Syrian statement on the talks said.Russia deployed troops to Syria in 2015 to support the Assad regime's brutal crackdown against anti-government forces. With Moscow's support, Assad's regime was free to imprison, torture, and murder hundreds of thousands of Syrians.Assad would later flee to Moscow where he now resides.Russia's delegation, which included Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, met with Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa. A banner depicting Syrian former President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin and reading "Justice Prevails," is displayed along a highway in Damascus, Syria on March 8, 2022. (Louai Beshara / AFP via Getty Images)Bogdanov reportedly described the talks as constructive, acknowledging the "difficult situation.