Russian President Vladimir Putin said he has yet to meet with exiled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad – even though he personally made the decision to grant asylum to the dictator and his family when the longtime Syrian dictator fled the country after his regime collapsed.

He made the comments during the annual press conference and question-and-answer session, where he fielded questions from both journalists in the audience and Russian citizens who submitted their inquiries ahead of time.

Topics ranged from Syria, Ukraine, the Russian economy and Putin’s relationship with US President-elect Donald Trump, all part of a carefully choreographed spectacle that lasted more than four hours.

Putin, who said he had not spoken to Trump in four years, said he was open to meeting the incoming US president, who has repeatedly pledged to end the war in Ukraine shortly after taking office on January 20.

While many questions from the audience came from reporters affiliated with Russian state media, NBC’s Keir Simmons asked Putin if he was willing to compromise on Ukraine — a question the Russian president did not fully answer.

“We are ready,” Putin said without elaborating. “We just need the other side to be ready for negotiations and compromise.”

The Kremlin has repeatedly said it will not negotiate with Ukraine unless it abandons its ambitions to join NATO and withdraw troops from territory now controlled by Russian troops.

Kursk

Putin was also asked about Russia’s fight to reclaim several hundred square kilometers of the Kursk region, which Ukraine still controls after a blitzkrieg offensive in western Russia in August.

He said Russian troops are fighting to retake Kursk, but there is no exact date when they will “liberate” it.

“The situation (at the front) is changing dramatically. Every day there are movements along the entire front line,” he said.

He noted that the campaign in Ukraine should have started before February 2022, saying that Russia should have “systematically prepared for it”.

While he went on to praise the heroic efforts of Russian soldiers, there was no mention of the thousands of North Korean soldiers who Ukraine and the US say are fighting alongside the Russians.

At least 100 of them were killed, according to a South Korean lawmaker who cited information from the country’s intelligence agency on Thursday.

Russian state media reported that two million Russian citizens submitted questions ahead of Putin’s press conference on topics ranging from the cost of living, mortgage rates and what Russia still calls its “special military operation.”

Economics

The first question was about Russian economygiven the rising rate of inflation caused by funneling money into the country’s war effort. There is concern throughout the country about rising food and grocery prices.

Putin acknowledged that the inflation rate, which is above nine percent, was an “alarming” figure, but said the government’s measures to cool the economy were working. He said economic growth is expected to be around four percent this year and slow in 2025.

“I think (the growth rate) next year should be somewhere around two to 2.5 percent, a kind of soft landing to maintain macroeconomic indicators,” he said.

Syria

Putin was asked about Russia’s presence in Syria, where it has two major military bases, the Hmeimim airbase and the naval base in the port of Tartous.

Satellite images show that Russia is in the process of moving some military equipment, but Putin said that Russia has proposed that its “partners” use the air base for humanitarian purposes.

The future of the airbase, which has been used to launch attacks across Syria in support of Assad, is now in doubt, with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, rebel group taking control of Damascus, ousting the Assad government Russia has spent years supporting.

“On the whole, we achieved our goal,” Putin said, referring to the bases. “We maintain relations with all the groups that control the situation there,

He also condemned Israel’s seizure of territory in the country, and said he believed Israel had no intention of withdrawing its troops from Syria.

American journalist Austin Tice

During the news conference, Simmons asked Putin if he would talk to Assad about missing American journalist Austin Tice, who was captured during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012.

Putin replied that Tice was someone who disappeared 12 years ago during the civil war, but then said he would ask Assad about the American when the two spoke.

Tice, a former US Marine, was one of the first American journalists to arrive in Syria after the war began.

US President Joe Biden said earlier this month that the government believed Tice was still alive. There was hope that Tice would be among the thousands of people released from prisons in Damascus.