'No one wants NATO-Russia clash in Syria', Putin says

Putin was speaking at a press conference after meeting African leaders in St Petersburg.

No one wants a direct clash of NATO and Russia's forces in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.

He was speaking at a press conference after meeting African leaders in St Petersburg.

He also said that Russia has carried out some preventive strikes after what Moscow called a Ukrainian "terrorist attack" that damaged the Crimean Bridge.

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A Russian couple was killed and their 14-year-old daughter wounded last week in what Moscow said was a Ukrainian attack that knocked out the road part of the bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Russian companies will get more profit thanks to Moscow's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal as grain prices have risen, the Russian President said.

Russia will share the profit with the poorest countries thanks to free delivery of its grain, he added.