Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has passed his thanks to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for his support in talks with world leaders at the G20 summit last week, the Syrian foreign minister said in Moscow on Monday. \"The president asked me to pass on his thanks to Putin for his position during and after the G20 summit,\" Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said at the start of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.