Lebanese President Michel Aoun is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to help get Syrian refugees back home. Aoun arrived in Moscow the previous day.
Lebanon has taken in over 1 million refugees from neighboring Syria, the equivalent of a quarter of Lebanon’s population. Lebanon faces “a terrible economic fall-out” from the Syrian crisis, Aoun said at a meeting on Tuesday with Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of Russian parliament.
The Lebanese president also expressed hope that Russia would help his country repatriate the Syrians. Politicians in Lebanon are divided over how to handle relations with the Syrian government and repatriation of refugees and look to Moscow to help to mediate that.