Vladimir Putin’s Syrian soap
opera has filled Russian television screens for weeks. The sight of
sophisticated missiles smashing into terrorist hide-outs has sent the
Russian leader’s popularity soaring to previously unseen heights.
Now,
reality is intruding. The crash of Flight 7K9268 — with an onboard bomb
planted by supporters of the so-called Islamic State as the most likely
cause — highlights the potential cost of Russia’s interference in the
Middle Eastern powder-keg.
Until
recently, the Kremlin sought not to take sides in the world’s most
unstable region. It kept good relations with both Israel and the
Palestinians.
Vladimir
Putin’s Syrian soap opera has filled Russian television screens for
weeks. The sight of sophisticated missiles smashing into terrorist
hide-outs has sent the Russian leader’s popularity soaring to previously
unseen heights
It was friendly
with Sunni Muslim regimes such as Saddam Hussein in Iraq, with secular
dictators such as Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, and with the Shia mullahs in
Iran.
But by intervening in Syria to
support his ally President Assad, Mr Putin has placed his chips firmly
on one side of the table. He and the Iranians are propping up the Assad
regime, and infuriating most of the Arab world in the process.
In
the short term, Mr Putin’s lightning campaign of air strikes on Syrian
rebels looked like a stroke of genius. It humiliated the West which,
thanks to the weak leadership of the Obama administration, has drawn
‘red lines’ on the Syrian issue but then failed to act on them when they
were crossed.
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