Syrians in Moscow told AFP on Tuesday they backed warming relations between Russia and the new government in their home country, after President Vladimir Putin welcomed Syria's interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to the Kremlin this month.
Russia was a key ally of Bashar al-Assad during the devastating 14-year Syrian civil war, providing vital military support that kept his forces in power.
Assad was ousted in December by Sharaa's Islamist forces, fleeing to Russia, which has been sheltering him and his family for the past 10 months.
At their Kremlin meeting two weeks ago, Sharaa said he wanted to "redefine" relations with Moscow, while Putin talked up decades-long "special" ties with Damascus.
Outside the Syrian embassy in Moscow, medical student Basel al-Ekrad, 26, said he was happy that Assad had been ousted and that the two countries were trying to maintain ties.
"Since ancient times, since the times of the USSR, relations between us have been at their best, they have always been very good," he told AFP.
"And we thank God that the old Assad regime is gone. Now we hope that we will have peace in Syria, so that people can live well there."
More than 4,000 Syrians study in Russian higher education institutes, Putin said this month. Syrian students started flocking to Russia's elite universities during the Soviet era.
Sharaa's older brother, Maher al-Sharaa, now his aide, spent several years studying in the Russian city of Voronezh in the early 2000s.
Assad has not been seen in public since he fled to the Russian capital last December, having been granted asylum.
A Syrian government official told AFP ahead of the Kremlin meeting that Sharaa would formally request Putin extradite Assad to face justice at home.
It is unclear if he did raise the issue and, asked by journalists, the Kremlin declined to comment on what Russia's response would be.
'Syrians have suffered'
Another Syrian, 26-year-old physician Majed Kobani, said he had a "very positive view of the improving relations between Syria and Russia."
Throughout the civil war, Russian warplanes rained air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria, including Kobani's home region of Idlib in the northwest.
The area was largely controlled by Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the later years of the conflict.
During a government offensive in late 2019 to retake parts of the province, hundreds of Russian air strikes caused widespread destruction, including to schools, hospitals, marketplaces and residential areas.
"We hope that the relationship will continue to develop for the better and that there will be peace everywhere, both in Russia and in Syria... have suffered under the previous regime," Kobani told AFP.
Despite the presence of Assad, Moscow is keen to build good relations with the new Syrian authorities, in particular to secure agreements over its prized military bases -- the Tartus naval base and Hmeimim air base.
Syria's official news agency reported Monday that a foreign ministry delegation was headed to Moscow for technical discussions on restoring embassy operations.
Atop the pink-and-white building in Central Moscow, Syria's new national flag flew, sodden by the rain.
Outside, Khaldoun al-Khaled, 30, was confident the two countries could work together.
"I hope everything will be fine, after all, the relationship between Russia and Syria did not begin yesterday," he said.