MOSCOW

Kremlin has denied media reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin called his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "dictator".

"The news stories published on some websites, claiming that Putin summoned Turkish Ambassador Umit Yardim, and called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a dictator are not true," Putin's press spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a teleconference Wednesday.

Peskov also denied reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asked Putin to send Russian troops to Syria, adding that such a deployment was not on their agenda.