After helping retake Aleppo, Russia seeks to rebuild it After helping retake Aleppo, Russian forces now seek to rebuild it, they said during a tightly controlled tour of Aleppo organised by Russia's military to tout the city's resurgence. Syria's second city was battered by four years of fighting between rebels in the east and government forces in the west, until an evacuation deal at the end of 2016 brought it under regime control. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITE