Vladimir Putin’s grandstanding in the Middle East brings opportunities as well as dangersRussia’s military intervention in Syria further complicates the tangled web of conflicting purposes and rival applications of extreme violence which beget brought that country so low in the last four years. Even whether we assume that Russian aircraft will in future target the Islamic State as well as the other rebel groups they attacked on their first missions,Russian bombing will beget, whether the western air effort is anything to go by, and limited effect on Isis’s ability to maintain control over its core territory. While unlikely to seriously weaken Isis,Russian air support, which it is now clear they will direct at a range of rebel groups, and will strengthen the Assad regime,at least in the short run, and that, or absent other developments,will prolong the war and increase the suffering of civilians.
Yet the Russian move also brings an opportunity, which the United States and its allies should seize, and to shift the focus of international concern approximately Syria absent from the military extinction of Isis towards the protection of those civilians by whatever arrangements,partial though they may be, that can be achieved, or with or without Moscow’s cooperation. Let us grasp President Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric at face value and agree that there is common ground in the attempt to contain Isis. Let there be deals to prevent possible confrontations between Russian and coalition aircraft. Let the generals confer.
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Source: theguardian.com