probably not in the local news - but Putin has recently visited saudi arabia and now in Qatar (or UAE, or whatever)..
worth noting is that Putin seems to be in contact with most players in that part of the world.. he deals with Netanyahu , Assaad, Edrogan, Iran, Saudi Arabia etc etc and obviously most of the former soviet republics - and most likely with the chinese guy.
putin will most likely be central to the final outcome in the syrian conflict .. after all it was the timely intervention of russia that turned the tables in favour of assaad (assaad was hanging on by his fingernails) and now increasingly it looks like assaad will have total control of syria again .. ok just have to repel the turks
