MOSCOW: US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Moscow on Wednesday seeking to gauge whether Vladimir Putin is ready to discuss ways to ease Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria.

American officials see movement on Assad’s future as key to giving momentum to the peace talks being led by UN envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva to end Syria’s civil war.

Moscow agreed to bring its ally’s representatives to the table for talks with rebel delegates, but the Russian president insists that only Syrian voters can decide Assad’s fate.

Any UN-backed elections would be at least 18 months away — even if the talks go well — and, without guarantees of Assad’s exit, Syrian opposition leaders may yet baulk.

So Kerry touched down outside Moscow hoping for a sign that Russia — which has just withdrawn some of the forces it sent to shore up Assad’s regime — may be more flexible.

“What we’re looking for, and what we’ve been looking for for a long time is how are we going to transition away from Assad’s leadership,” a senior US official told reporters.

Kerry is in regular contact with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, but the top US diplomat knows any change in the Kremlin’s posture will only come from Putin himself.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2016