Putin is to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on his first foreign tour since returning to the Kremlin for a third term amid unprecedented protests against his rule.
The brief trips to Berlin and Paris come amid mounting pressure by the West on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after a massacre in the town of Houla last week that sparked global outrage.
Germany, France, Britain, the United States and other Western nations expelled Syrian diplomats in protest at the slaughter of 108 people, including women and children, many of whom were summarily executed according to the UN.
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