According to statements made yesterday by Putin, who spoke at the Valdai Forum in Sochi, the ISIS terrorists would have taken almost 700 hostage to European and US citizens in the areas of Syria controlled by pro-American forces.
The Russian president added that the terrorists would have issued an ultimatum - without specifying its content - threatening to kill 10 people a day if this was not respected.
“According to our data - Putin said - they have taken hostage some citizens of both the US and European countries. Everyone is silent, there is a silence as if nothing happened ”.
According to Putin, ISIS is expanding on the left bank of the Euphrates. “There, in some inhabited centers, elements of ISIS remained who in recent times have begun to expand their area of presence. Nobody knows what happens in those regions controlled by the US - he explained - and that's where they took the hostages ”.
The Russian president then described the activities carried out by the Russian forces in Syria "we have essentially achieved the objectives that we set when we started the military operation in Syria", adding that tensions and hysteria are not the Russian presence "To push the world to the brink of a total crisis, with results that are unlikely to be unpredictable, is an irresponsible policy, we have never conducted such a policy and we will not do it".