"This is not a place to visit with family," Ligi said on social media, commenting on Toom's recent visit to Syria. "Instead it is a place which is depicted with dead bodies between ruins. Not everybody is allowed to go there. One must have an agreement with the person who is responsible for that atrocity, the second-generation dictator or the Kremlin, which is trying to keep him in power, working against long-lasting peace treaties and implementing authority. The latter is testing new weapons systems there and has now said that for broader use."

According to Ligi, Syria is looking for simpletons and friends of the Kremlin in the West who would show the the country in a humane light. He added that Toom has stated before in the media that there is no objective picture of what is happening in Syria and the EU has picked the "wrong side."

According to Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu, the fact that Toom visited Syria on Thursday and met with President Bashar al-Assad was not surprising.

"[Toom] has positioned herself for a long time as a supporter and promoter of Kremlin policy in the European Parliament as well as in Estonia," Mihkelson wrote on social media on Thursday.

Toom and two other MEPs together with a delegation of Russia's Federation Council members met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Thursday. At the meeting, they discussed the recently signed Syrian ceasefire, RIA Novosti reported Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Konstantin Kosachev as saying.

Toom also visited Syria and met with Assad in July of this year, together with Spanish MEP Javier Couso Permuy and Latvian MEP Tatjana Ždanoka.