Suddenly, Putin Is Playing Nice in Syria
Trump’s willingness to confront the Assad regime has changed the balance of power.
Putin and Erdogan, friends again.
Photographer: Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
All of a sudden, President Vladimir Putin is a soft touch on Syria. First, he let President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey persuade him not to begin a huge attack on the Syrian opposition in Idlib. Then he defused a conflict with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel over a downed Russian military plane.
Putin’s risk-taking has shaped the outcome of the Syrian war. But in this final stage of the conflict, he is facing powerful constraints on further muscular action. One of his biggest achievements in Syria has been to show that Russia can successfully ignore the U.S. in the Middle East, and set itself up as a fast-moving, resolute, go-to player. It turns out, however, that he can no longer assume U.S. passivity, and that means being careful with U.S. allies, too.