Russian experts proved right about Iraq - Vladimir Putin

The Russian experts' forecasts of the developments in Iraq have proved absolutely correct, President Vladimir Putin told a news conference in the Kremlin Friday.

"The analysis they made even before the events precisely predicted the actual events in Iraq, almost day by day," he said.

Russian intelligence registered "each plane's take-off, each target hit with a missile, and each missed," the president added. According to him, "our intelligence services were working reliably and effectively." "The decisions I made with regard to the Iraq situation were based on that reliable information," the president went on to say. "We were aware of the actual state of the armed forces." "Our position on Iraq was not to forecast who wins and who loses, but to decide which means one has the right to use to resolve this kind of conflicts," Putin emphasized. "So you know our position, it never changed," he concluded.