Trust, but verify had been popular in the USSR when Gorbachev was in college, saying that "The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." Following the 2013 Ghouta attacks, Secretary of State John Kerry told a news conference in Geneva on September 14, 2013 that the United States and Russia had agreed on a framework to dispose of Syria's chemical weapons. He said "President Reagan's old adage about 'trust but verify' ... is in need of an update. And we have committed here to a standard that says 'verify and verify'." The similar phrase "Trust and Verify" was also
International reactions to the Syrian Civil War 10 January 2012. Russia's current arms contracts with Syria are estimated to be 1.5 billion US dollars, compromising 10% of Russia's global arms sales. Syria also hosts a Russian navy base at Tartus, Russia's last military base outside the borders of the former USSR. Russia's arms sales sparked anger and criticism on the part of certain Western and Arab nations. The Russian government, for its part, defended its sales by pointing out that they did not violate any standing arms embargoes. By the end of January 2012, a resolution proposal, competing with the Russian proposal of December 2011, had been