Vladimir Putin met with Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko and State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin before the start of the Federal Assembly’s autumn session.

On July 17, a meeting will be held in Moscow between Vladimir Putin and Special Envoy for the United Nations and the League of Arab States for Syria, Kofi Annan, who will be visiting Russia on July 16–17, 2012.

Mr Medvedev and Mr Annan discussed the situation in Syria.

Letters of credence were presented by ambassadors of Angola, Bahrain, Belarus, Columbia, Costa Rica, Djibouti, Great Britain, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, Laos, Luxembourg, Spain, Syria, and Tunisia.

The meeting discussed, in particular, the United Nations Security Council draft resolution on Syria, which was vetoed by Russia during the recent vote in the UN Security Council.

Dmitry Medvedev had a telephone conversation with President of Syria Bashar al-Assad.

The President of Russia awarded the Patriarch the Order of Friendship.

During the talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Dmitry Medvedev expressed confidence that the current friendly relations between Russia and Syria will continue in the future.