MOSCOW – Russia’s military operation in Syria cost 33 billion rubles (roughly $464 million) from the Defense Ministry’s budget for military drills and training, Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
According to the Vladimir Putin, additional costs are required after the operation in Syria but they are justified in order not to pay a higher price in future.
Putin highly appreciated on Thursday the Russian military pilots’ operation in Syria.

Putin stressed that Russia’s main agenda is peaceful but the security of the country should be ensured as well.
“The main agenda in Russia for today is, of course, peaceful. It includes working on development of the economy in uneasy conditions, maintaining and increasing the welfare of our people. However, we cannot solve any of these tasks without ensuring security, without building a combat-ready and effective army and navy,” Putin said.
According to the president Putin, Russia has created conditions for the peace process in Syria, “opened the road to peace.”
“We have created conditions for the beginning of the peace process. We managed to establish constructive and positive cooperation with the U.S. and a number of other countries, with responsible opposition forces inside Syria, which indeed want to stop the war and find the only possible political solution to the crisis. And it was you, Russia’s soldiers, who opened the road to peace,” Putin said.

Source:  Tass, 17  March 2016