Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia December 21, 2017 - REUTERS/Maxim Shipenkov/PoolMOSCOW - 29 January 2018: The absence of some representatives of the Syrian opposition will not be a serious setback for a conference on the Middle East crisis taking place at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi this week, Moscow said on Monday. "The fact that some representatives of the processes currently ongoing in Syria are not participating is unlikely to stop this congress from going ahead and can not seriously sabotage it," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

Source: Egypt Today January 29, 2018 09:56 UTC