(Paul Mirengoff) More than three years ago, Russia proposed that Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, step down as part of a peace deal, according to Martti Ahtisaaria, a senior negotiator involved in back-channel discussions at the time. Ahtisaari is the former president of Finland and a Nobel peace prize laureate. He says the Russian offer, which sounds more like a framework, came in 2012 from Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the U.N. It
Source: Power Line