Russia’s prime minister has said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had made a “grave,” and possibly “fatal” mistake by delaying political reforms and not speaking to members of the country’s oppositon sooner. “[Assad] should have done everything much faster, attracting part of the moderate opposition, which was ready to sit at the table with him, to his side,” Dmitry Medvedev said according to the transcript of an interview with CNN released by his office on Sunday. “This was his grave mistake, and possibly a fatal one,” Medvedev said. Medvedev’s comments are some of the harshest from Syria’s most important ally during the last two years of a civil war that began as an uprising against Assad’s rule. Medvedev also said that Assad is losing his grip on power as the war, which has already cost more than 60,000 lives, continues. “I think that with every day, every week and every month the chances of his preservation are getting smaller and smaller,” Medvedev was quoted as saying. “But I repeat, again, this must be decided by the Syrian people. Not Russia, not the United States, not any other country.”
