by Dan Roberts and Julian Borger, The Guardian:

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has warned against US military intervention in Syria, writing in what he called a direct address “to the American people and their political leaders” that it could “increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism”.

Syria was not witnessing a battle for democracy but “an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multi-religious country”, Putin said, in a New York Times comment piece repeating assertions that rebels rather than the government might have used chemical weapons, “to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons”, and may be planning further attacks, even against Israel.

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