Moscow (dpa) 12.01.2016 – Russia could give asylum to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad if he is forced to leave his country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published Tuesday.

“It was surely more difficult to grant Mr Snowden asylum in Russia than it would be in the case of Assad,” Putin told Germany‘s most popular tabloid, Bild, referring to former US intelligence worker turned whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who was given asylum in Russia in 2013.

Putin said it was too early to say whether Russia would have to shelter al-Assad, whose country has disintegrated in a civil war that has lasted almost five years.

Putin admitted that he thinks al-Assad has “done much wrong over the course of this conflict.”

He added that “once again, this is not supposed to mean that everything is fine in Syria or that Assad is doing everything right.”