The Russian leader, who has offered Bashar al-Assad asylum, also sought to reassure citizens tired of Russia’s war on Ukraine during his end-of-year news conference.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would enquire about the whereabouts of Austin Tice, the American journalist missing in Syria, while responding to a question from an NBC correspondent at his lengthy end-of-year press conference.

Putin says he will ask Assad about missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice at annual news conference “A person went missing 12 years ago, we understand what situation was there back then,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC News' Keir Simmons.