Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said peace mediator Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...'s deputy was trying to secure agreement with the fractured foreign-based Syrian opposition on who could meet Bashir al-Assad's Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa.
"Russia has proposed starting this dialogue in Moscow, considering the opposition's fear of coming to Syria and the authorities' refusal to hold a meeting in Cairo under the auspices of the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
," Bogdanov said in comments posted by the foreign ministry.
The Syrian strongman appointed Sharaa as his official negotiator last year. But the rebels had previously rejected negotiations because of the raging violence and the regime's refusal to offer real power to Assad's foes.
Moscow has hosted several more moderate Syrian groups in the past year who do not represent the main Syrian National Council opposition movement.
Bogdanov did not say how or whether either Assad or the Syrian opposition has responded to Russia's offer.