Moving further from its strict stance of nonintervention, Russia pressured President Bashar Assad of Syria on Monday, July 9, to be more flexible about the future of his ravaged country, insisting that he talk with adversaries, inviting an anti-Assad delegation to the Kremlin and restricting shipments of new weapons to the Syrian armed forces, The New York Times reported. The developments appeared to signal that Russia, the Syrian government’s most important foreign backer, may be laying the basis for the option of eventually distancing itself from Assad. The Syrian leader, who has presided over the suppression of an uprising that by some estimates has left as many as 17,000 people dead, has lost much international credibility, having been accused of severe human rights abuses, provoking confrontation with neighboring Turkey, and suffering a rash of high-ranking military defections.