Secretary of State John Kerry is heading to Sochi, Russia for a meeting Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Though a number of issues are expected to be raised, Syria will be the main focus.
Though both sides have an eye on some sort of political solution in Syria, it is unclear if there is enough common ground between the two to actually work together on the effort.
Russia is historically one of Syria’s closest allies, and Russia retains a naval base at Tartus. Russia has expressed hope that some sort of transition away from Assad can happen without risking their traditional alliance, while the US seems eager for a wholesale change, and the installation of new US allies in power.
The timing isn’t great for compromise between the US and Russia either, with the two nations at odds over a number of issues, including some high-profile NATO wargames along the Russian frontier.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to accomplishing anything on Syria, however, is that neither the US nor Russia seems to be willing to see any of the major rebel factions, like ISIS and al-Qaeda, involved in the peace talks. Absent that, it seems that even if a deal is made, the war continues.
The US intention was for Kerry to arrive triumphantly after the US/Saudi/israeli/Turkish ´supported and armed ISIS & Al Qaeda terrorists, with intense direct Turkish support, had gained a foothold in the northern parts of lattakia in the town JISR AL-SHUGHOOR with surroundings, Syria.
With a constant flow of medieval Saudi-Wahhabi, cut-throat Orc´s from Turkey and the latest US anti-tank missiles, that initially seemed to work out as intended but SAA, NDF and Hezbollah now has the town surrounded and adjacent areas regularly bombed by the SAAF, (much like the famous cauldrons in the ukraine btw)
After this futile attempt to kick start the threat of a US invasion (again) and thousands of innocent civilians dead, Kerry is now cut down to size.
I truly wish Kerry was "cut down to size" but there seems to be no end to US hubris.
It will be interesting to see what is said at the press conference later today…
Kerry's visit does seem to have coincided with a Western-funded and -guided offensive effort, and a great blare of Washington-inspired propaganda about the purported success of that effort.
It doesn't seem likely Putin will be impressed. "Is that all you've got" is more likely.
What's keeping Russia from intervening militarily against IS before they topple the Syrian government?
consequences.
And what would the consequences be if Russia loses Syria altogether?
Possibly because it would reveal just how technologically backward and incompetently officered the Russian military is. Don't forget that Russia hasn't won a war without US assistance since 1876 and even then it was against the decaying Turkish Empire. The Crimean War was a disaster, the war with Japan in 1904 was a disaster, WWI brought down the Tsar and Afghanistan brought down the Soviet Union. And to crown it all, the cream of the Russian military, Cossack mercenaries, has been surrounded by the rickety cold war-era Ukrainian army. Putin has very good reasons for not wanting to risk using his army!
"Russia hasn't won a war without US assistance since 1876 "
Except, of course, that Russia defeated both indigenous and foreign (including US) forces in the Civil War of 1917-22; defeated Ukraine in the Ukrainian War of Independence without US assistance; conquered Azerbaijan in 1920 and Georgia in 1921 without US assistance; conquered Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia without US assistance; invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia without US assistance; defeated US-backed forces in Angola; and defeated Georgia in Abkhazia and South Ossetia both in the 1990s and in 2006.
But yes, other than all those and some others I don't recall right off the top of my head, Russia hasn't won a war without US assistance since 1876.
Lol!
And with their technologically backward military they'd still beat an air force equipped with F-35s any day.
There is no reason to imagine that Russia will step in to fight the enemy of the US.
If we want someone to help us with that, we'll have to make a deal with Iran.
When we do, we'll have to acknowledge that the funding of ISIS is Saudi, and they are not really our friends.
What enemy of the US? The terrorists are trying to destroy Syria and Assad, not the US. That makes it of paramount concern to Russia. And yet they're talking about holding some peace talks or some such nonsense.
I wonder why Putin even bothers to talk to Kerry since Kerry will most likely change his mind on the flight back to Washington – once he gets his new orders from the neocons in Obama's inner circle.
I could imagine Putin being offered what he wants in Syria if he backs off in Ukraine. Since he has trapped himself in a dead end in Ukraine, Syria might be a face-saving way for him to get out the mess in Ukraine.
We are the ones in a mess in Ukraine, not Putin.
We are paying the bills for a failed kleptocracy with no real hope of a fix. We are paying Russia for Ukraine's gas.
That war? It cost Putin little, and is of some real use to him too. Sanctions? Russia's weakness was its reliance on resource extraction instead of developing its own industry, and so this forces them to do what they ought to have been doing, and gives them a protected market in which to do so.
Our neocons blundered again. No surprise there.
The US is not making any "peace efforts" and Kerry is not meeting Putin to discuss any.
The US is still making regime change efforts. Kerry is meeting Putin to make demands, and maybe a deal if Putin is willing to surrender Syria. Putin won't, so nothing will happen.