‘Russian air strikes in Syria to last 3-4 months’

Russian air strikes in Syria will last for three to four months and will intensify, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Friday as President Vladimir Putin was due in Paris for talks.

“There is always a risk of getting bogged down but in Moscow they're talking about three to four months of operations,” Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia's lower house of parliament, told France's Europe 1 radio. Pushkov said more than 2,500 air strikes by the US-led coalition in Syria had failed to inflict significant damage on the jihadist Islamic State group, but Russia's campaign would be more intensive to achieve results.