Although Western governments have criticised Russia for planning to send the missile systems to President Bashar al-Assad's forces, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference on Tuesday the contracts were legal and were not intended to upset the military balance.
Putin also praised the S-300 missiles system as one of the best in the world but added: "The contract was signed several years ago. It has not been fulfilled yet."
Putin also said after a summit with European Union leaders in the city of Yekaterinburg that any foreign military intervention in Syria's more than two-year-old civil war was doomed to fail and could make the situation in Syria worse. He also criticised an EU decision not to extend an embargo on member states arming rebel forces fighting the Syrian government.
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