Addressing the UN General Assembly for the first time in a decade, Putin on Monday proposed a broad UN-backed coalition to fight IS militants and clashed with Obama on the future of Assad.
Washington and its allies blame Assad for the mayhem in Syria, where four years of bloodshed have killed more than 240,000 people.
France meanwhile said it has launched a probe into Assad’s regime for alleged crimes against humanity, saying it was forced to act in the face of “systematic cruelty”.
The French investigation is largely based on evidence from a former Syrian army photographer known by the codename “Caesar,” who defected and fled the country in 2013, bringing with him some 55,000 graphic photographs.
France, which is part of the US-led coalition against IS, carried out its own first air strikes against extremist positions in Syria on Sunday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the bombs killed at least 30 jihadists, including 12 child soldiers.
Russia argues that the West should support Assad in his fight against the jihadists.
But Washington says the Syrian leader must go if the Islamic State group is to be defeated.
– National interests, not ambitions –
The Pentagon says Russia has in recent weeks sent warplanes and other military hardware to northwestern Syria — along with at least 500 troops — in what many fear is an attempt to keep the country’s president in power.
Moscow’s proposal has exposed differences among Washington’s European allies, with some siding with Obama and others saying Moscow should have a greater role in fighting IS.
Putin had also sought permission from the council to deploy military forces in Ukraine ahead of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014.
Konstantin Kosachev, head of the council’s international affairs committee, said Russia’s forces would work in close coordination with Syria’s army and stressed Moscow would not be sucked into a protracted conflict.
Ivanov said Russia was acting in the national interest to prevent foreign terrorist fighters from crossing its borders.
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