ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to take questions Wednesday from international journalists on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Putin scheduled a roundtable session with senior news leaders of international news agencies, including The Associated Press. Among other issues, he’s expected to spell out Moscow’s position on the conflict between Israel and Iran that he offered to help mediate in a weekend call with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Russia has maintained a delicate balancing act in the Middle East for decades, trying to navigate its warm relations with Israel even as it has developed strong economic and military ties with Iran, a policy that potentially opens opportunities for Moscow to play power broker to help end the confrontation.

Putin’s comments will also be watched closely for clues to his strategy in the three-year conflict in Ukraine, where Russia has intensified its aerial campaign and stepped up ground attacks along the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 600-mile) front line. He has effectively rejected Trump’s offer of an immediate 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt on Ukraine’s mobilization effort and a freeze on Western arms supplies.

The Russian leader has used the annual forum to highlight Russia’s economic achievements and seek foreign investment. Western executives, who attended the event in the past, have avoided it after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, leaving it to business leaders from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

On the sidelines of the forum, Putin is set to have meetings with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who now heads the New Development Bank created by the BRICS alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. He’s also expected to confer with top officials from China, South Africa and Bahrain and the head of the OPEC group of oil-producing countries.

On Friday, he is set to attend a panel discussion at the forum, a venue he has used to make policy statements.

In his highly choreographed end-of-year press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is ready to meet with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and negotiate with Ukraine on ending the war, while emphasizing they must be ready for compromise.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hasn’t yet met with exiled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad — even though he personally made the decision to grant the dictator and his family asylum when Syria’s longtime dictator fled the country after his regime crumbled.

He made the comment during an annual press conference and question-and-answer session, where he fielded questions from both journalists in the audience and Russian citizens who submitted their queries ahead of time.

The topics ranged from Syria, Ukraine, Russia’s economy and Putin’s relationship with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, all part of a carefully choreographed spectacle that lasted for four-and-a-half hours.

Putin, who said he hasn’t spoken to Trump in four years, said he is open to meeting with the incoming U.S. president, who has repeatedly vowed to end the war in Ukraine soon after taking office on Jan. 20.

While many questions from the audience came from journalists affiliated with Russian state media, NBC correspondent Keir Simmons asked Putin if he was prepared to compromise when it comes to Ukraine — a question the Russian president didn’t fully answer.

“We are ready,” Putin said without offering any specifics. “We just need the other side to be ready, too. For negotiations and for compromise.”

The Kremlin has said repeatedly it will not negotiate with Ukraine unless it renounces its ambition to join NATO and withdraws soldiers from territories now controlled by Russian troops.

Putin spoke to journalists, many of whom are part of Russian state media. (Maxim Shemetov/REUTERS)

Kursk

WATCH | Putin says Russia will retake Kursk — but doesn’t say when: Putin says Russia will retake Kursk — but doesn’t say when Duration 0:45 Vladimir Putin says his forces will regain full control of the western Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops launched an offensive last summer. But the Russian president, who held an annual press briefing in Moscow on Thursday, would not provide a specific date.

Putin was also asked about Russia’s fight to recapture several hundred square kilometres of the Kursk region, which Ukraine still controls after a lightning offensive in western Russia in August.

He said Russian troops are fighting to take Kursk back, but there is no firm date when they will “liberate” it.

“The situation [at the front] is changing dramatically. There is movement along the entire front line every day,” he said.

He noted the campaign into Ukraine should have begun before February 2022, saying Russia should have “systematically prepared for it.”

Ukrainian service personnel use searchlights as they search for drones in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv on Thursday. (Gleb Garanich/REUTERS)

Though he went on to praise the heroic efforts of Russian soldiers, there was no mention of the thousands of North Korean troops that Ukraine and the U.S. say are fighting alongside the Russians.

At least 100 of them have been killed according to a South Korean lawmaker who cited information from the country’s spy agency on Thursday.

Russian state media reported that two million Russian citizens submitted questions ahead of Putin’s press conference on topics that ranged from the cost of living, mortgage rates and what Russia still calls its “special military operation.”

Economy

The first question was about Russia’s economy , given the surging inflation rate driven by the country funnelling money into the war effort. Throughout the country, there have been concerns about the rising price of food and groceries.

Putin admitted that the inflation rate, which sits above nine per cent, is an “alarming” figure but said government measures to cool the economy are working. He said economic growth is expected to be about four per cent this year and will slow in 2025.

“I think the [growth rate] next year should be somewhere around two to 2.5 per cent, a sort of soft landing in order to maintain macroeconomic indicators,” he said.

A screen, which shows an image of Putin and a quote from his annual televised year-end press conference, is on display on the facade of a building behind an electronic board promoting contract military service in the Russian army, in a street in Moscow. (Shamil Zhumatov/REUTERS)

Syria

Putin was asked about Russia’s presence in Syria, where it has two major military bases, the Hmeimim airbase and a naval base at the port of Tartous.

Satellite images indicate that Russia is in the process of moving some of the military equipment, but Putin said that Russia has proposed that its “partners” use the airbase for humanitarian purposes.

The future of the airbase, which was used to launch strikes across Syria in support of Assad, is now in question, given that rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, has taken control of Damascus, pushing out the Assad government that Russia spent years backing.

“On the whole, we have achieved our goal,” Putin claimed when speaking about the bases. “We maintain relations with all the groups that control the situation there,

He also condemned Israel’s seizure of territories in the country, and he said he believed Israel had no intention of withdrawing its troops from Syria.

U.S. journalist Austin Tice

During the press conference, Simmons asked Putin if he would speak to Assad about missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012.

Putin replied that Tice was someone who disappeared 12 years ago during a civil war but then said he would ask Assad about the American when the two speak.

Tice, a former U.S. marine, was one of the first U.S. journalists to make it into Syria after the start of the war.

U.S. President Joe Biden said earlier this month the government believes Tice is still alive. There had been hope Tice would be found among the thousands of people released from prisons in Damascus.