Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to ask former Syrian President Assad for help in obtaining information on American journalist Austin Tice after he was taken prisoner 12 years ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he plans to meet with deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad soon and will ask him about the whereabouts of missing American journalist Austin Tice. In his annual marathon press conference,

Putin has said he will ask the deposed president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, about the U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in the country 12 years ago. “I promise to ask this question,” he said in response to a question from NBC News’ Keir Simmons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had not yet met deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad since Moscow granted him asylum, but that he has plans to. Putin, speaking at his annual end-of-year news conference on Thursday,

Vladimir Putin has promised to ask Bashar Al-Assad about American journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria 12 years ago - it comes after a Syrian prisoner claimed he saw Tice alive in 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin talked for more than three hours during an annual news conference in Moscow on Thursday, discussing key topics including the war in Ukraine, his interest in

Russia should have launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a year-end news conference Thursday.

The mother of U.S. journalist Austin Tice sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a letter late Wednesday asking for his help in finding her son, who went missing in Syria a dozen years ago.

US group Hostage Aid Worldwide says it believes journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, is still alive, but didn’t offer concrete information on his whereabouts.

Debra Tice, mother of missing American journalist Austin Tice who has been detained in Syria for 12 years, joins TODAY to open up about the fight to bring him home and her letter to Russia’s Vladimir Putin asking for help.

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has led to the freeing of tens of thousands of prisoners from the country’s brutal and byzantine prison system. Desperate family members continue to search for many more people who went missing since repression of an anti-government uprising triggered a horrific civil war in 2011.