A senior Russian lawmaker says Moscow’s campaign in Syria was almost complete with the Syrian government set to reclaim control over the country’s eastern border and the Islamic State almost completely defeated, according to Newsweek.

Chairman of the defense committee in Russia's lower house of parliament Vladimir Shamanov told state media on Monday, he expects the mission with the Syrian military and its allies to defeat ISIS in its last stronghold of Deir Ezzor, to be completed by the end of the year.

The statement went along with Russia’s revived effort with Iran and Turkey to obtain a political solution to the six-year civil war and the Syrian government’s condemnation of a separate U.S.-backed coalition battling ISIS in Syria, the report said.

"In general, we can say that major tasks of Russia’s military operation in Syria have been almost accomplished," Shamanov said, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.

"We expect that by the end of this year, government forces will restore control over the eastern border of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Islamic State won’t exist anymore as an organized military structure," he added.

Russia’s military involvement in September 2015 helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad change the course of the war in favor of his government forces who have been fighting an uprising by insurgents and jihadists since 2011, the report said. Human rights groups condemned the joint campaign for allegedly causing a high number of civilian casualties but it also expedited ISIS’ losses and permitted Russia to achieve a larger presence in the Middle East.

Defense committee chairman in Russia's upper house of parliament Viktor Bondarev told Tass on Monday 95 percent of Syria’s territory has been liberated from ISIS control and "scaling down Russia’s presence in Syria when we finish the operation to liberate it will be a natural and reasonable move."

However, Moscow endorsed long-term agreements with Damascus to keep control over air and sea bases on the Syrian western coast — a stronghold under government control since the start of the violence, according to Newsweek.

— WN.com, Jubilee Baez