Putin Won at the Ballot Box. He's Losing Elsewhere.

President Vladimir Putin’s reelection on Sunday to a fourth six-year term comes amid a feeling both in the West and in Moscow that he is ascendant as a global leader and that Russia has reemerged as a global superpower. However, if one scratches beneath the surface of these assertions, it’s clear that Putin faces a growing number of complex challenges that are likely to deepen in the coming months and gradually erode his political momentum. Here are a few that will be the most difficult for him to overcome.

In Syria, as I wrote last year, Russia is increasingly stuck on both the military and diplomatic fronts. On the battlefield, Putin has repeatedly boasted that Russia’s military goals in Syria have been accomplished -- the defeat of extremist groups threatening the regime of Bashar al-Assad -- and that he soon plans to draw down Russian military forces. However, given the chaotic situation on the ground -- the Assad regime still controls only about one-third of the country -- that seems unlikely anytime soon.