Moscow has rejected a Saudi proposal to abandon Syria's president in return for a huge arms deal and a pledge to boost Russian influence in the Arab world, diplomats told AFP on Thursday.
According to the diplomats, on July 31, President Vladimir Putin met Saudi Arabia's influential intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who proposed that Saudi Arabia buy $15 billion of weapons from Russia and invest "considerably in the country.”
An Arab diplomat with contacts in Moscow told AFP, "President Putin listened politely to his interlocutor and let him know that his country would not change its strategy."