Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel held a telephone conversation. The Russian President and German Chancellor discussed the U.S. plans to withdraw troops from Syria, the solution to the confrontation in the Arab country with the quadripartite summit in Istanbul. Putin has noticed that the countries-guarantors of the Astana process work on formation of the list of members of the constitutional Department creates policies to achieve long-term and reliable settlement in the Syrian Arab Republic. in addition, world leaders continued exchange of views on the situation in the Kerch Strait. It is noted that the head of countries congratulated each other with coming New year and agreed to continue contacts. <span style="color:darkgray