Following French President Francois Hollande’s high-profile meeting with Vladimir Putin, Russia and France have announced they will engage in increased cooperation against ISIS inside Syria, and will increase intelligence sharing on potential targets.
Since the ISIS attacks in Paris, France has been pushing for increased cooperation between the US-led coalition they are part of and Russia on the fighting, though US officials have been warning Hollande against letting cooperation on ISIS get in the way of the ongoing anti-Russia crackdown in Eastern Europe.
Still, Russia has indicated openness to working together on ISIS from the start, and Putin insists he still is, despite Turkey destroying one of their bombers earlier this week, a move which greatly increased Russia-NATO tensions.
Hollande and Putin did, however, disagree on the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad, with Hollande insisting he has to immediately leave power, and Putin insisting the post of Syrian president is entirely up to the Syrian people.
If we should get rid of Assad and ISIS I suppose al Nurse or Alqaida would be next in line to take over Syria or perhaps NATO is considering BOKO HARM . I agree with Russia Assad is the best choice for awhile anyway . Look at Iraq and Libya . Saddam and Gaddoffi at least controlled the countries so people could live in them .
But Assad doesn't control very much of Syria, does he? And without Putin to prop him up, he wouldn't control even that. Iraq and Afghanistan are perfect examples of the failure of a foreign power to prop up its chosen leader. Putin would be no more successful in Syria.
Meh. Without the US and Saudi Arabia, Al-Nusra and ISIS wouldn't have stood a chance against the Syrian army either. Who is propping up whom then?
… really feels like Vietnam all over again indeed.
Hollande's blustering about Assad is mostly to appease Uncle Sam. Ignore the hot air and hand-waving and watch who the French are attacking: it won't be the Syrian Arab Army or the Russians.
And now the Germans are on board too. DW is reporting the German military is sending a destroyer and air cover to protect the French carrier. This is only the third foreign deployment of German forces since the end of WW II, so it's a big deal for them.
Uncle Sam's attempt to drive a wedge between the Europeans and the Russians has failed in a spectacular fashion and instead has pushed them closer together.
The umpteenth "split" between the US and the EU! As fictitious as all the others. What are the chances of Hollande bombing Ukraine?
Esentially, Putin is capitulating, which indicates the extent of the mess he's in in Syria (to say nothing of Ukraine!). But the more he bogs himself down in Syria the better and if Hollande can push him along that road, great! For Hollande, the secret is to "shaft" the Russian-funded Front National in the regional elections on 6 and 13 December by waging war on ISIS, which, of course, cannot be won, and cozying up to Putin, whose line Marine Le Pen toes down to the last comma. Opinion polls taken since the attack show about 1% more support for the FN nationally and that, in an election where the voter turnout will, on past performance, be only about 40 – 45%. The Front is still blocked in its traditional "fiefs": the far south-east, the rust belt along the northern border and the "poor whites" in the suburbs on the outskirts of Paris. ISIS will be declared defeated on 14 December!
Wow! I'm impressed by the way everything you said for the last two years (and counting) always boils down one way or another to Putin surrendering …
… let's hope he doesn't capitulate again, or we might get ourselves into a nuke exchange.
My working theory is that "Michael Kenny" is actually Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, better known to American audiences as "Baghdad Bob." The US State Department disposes of tens of millions of dollars per year to "combat Russian propaganda," which mostly boils down to producing and disseminating anti-Russian propaganda. That money's going SOMEWHERE. No reason why Baghdad Bob couldn't be knocking down five or six figures a year copying and pasting the same stock phrases to Antiwar.com (and probably other sites). A man has to make a living after all. Baghdad Bob is supposedly retired in the UAE, but Ba'ath Party pension nest eggs just don't go as far as they used to.