Russia Urges Turkey to Continue Real Separation of Militants From Opposition in Idlib

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia expects Turkey to continue work on separating the militants from the opposition in Syria's Idlib, as a fictitious renaming of terrorist groups is unacceptable, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday.

“We hope that the Turkish partners will continue efforts to dissociate the moderates from extremists, and take measures to neutralize the latter," Zakharova said at a briefing.

She stressed that simply renaming groups does not mean changing their essence, as they remain terrorist.

"There should be no illusions, as we are talking about internationally recognized terrorists, no matter what they call themselves," Zakharova said.