Putin Discovers the Pain of Being Erdogan’s Pal
From Syria to Libya, Turkey’s brinkmanship is putting Russia in an awkward place.
Grip and grimace.
Photographer: Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
The Kremlin’s denizens could be forgiven for thinking they’re hearing some muffled chuckling coming from the direction of Washington. Because Trump administration officials must be feeling some schadenfreude as they watch their counterparts in Moscow wrestle with a quandary all too familiar at the Pentagon and Foggy Bottom: How do you solve a problem like Recep Tayyip Erdogan?
The more philosophically-minded Russian officials may concede that turnabout is fair play: For several years now, they were the ones pointing and giggling as Turkey’s president strained his country’s ties with the U.S., deploying bellicose rhetoric against — and provocative behavior toward — American allies, from the Kurds in Syria, Israel and Greece to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.