Russian PM: 'Russia doesn't intend to stay in Syria forever'

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that Russia is not intending on staying in Syria indefinitely.

In an interview with Time, Medvedev said that although the Russian military was in Syria following the demands of President Bashar al-Assad, it was not up to him to determine the exposure of the Russian army in Syria.

"There is no evidence of our bombing civilians, even though everyone is accusing us of this," Medvedev told a security conference in Munich."Russia is not trying to achieve some secret goals in Syria. We are simply trying to protect our national interests."

One observer group estimates the number of civilians killed by Russian air strikes to be above 1,000.

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