Syria should decide its own destiny without outside intervention, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

Putin said at a meeting of religious representatives that Russia condemns the violence in Syria regardless of which side provoked it.

"One cannot behave like an elephant in a china shop. Let people decide their fate themselves," the Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying.

He recalled the situation in Libya, especially in the cities that supported the late leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Terrible crimes were committed in those cities "but nobody speaks about them as if they all forgot it," Putin said.

"Because (these crimes) are the terrible result of outside intervention," he said, stressing that outside forces should be restrained from direct involvement.

"To help, to advise, to restrict them in certain ways that will let the sides not to use arms, but will not to intervene in any case," he said.

Russia and China last week vetoed the Arab-European draft resolution that backs an Arab League plan to promote a "regime change" in Syria.

Russia said the draft contains imposition of conditions on the dialogue and called for measures to influence not only the government but also armed groups.