Putin 'Solidifies His Status as Indispensable Arbitrator of Syria's Fate

https://sputniknews.com/politics/20160925/1045679786/putin-syria-middle-east.html

14:30 25.09.2016

US President Barack Obama warned Russia that it would end up bogged down in a Syrian "quagmire" days after Moscow launched its aerial campaign aimed at helping President Bashar al-Assad tackle a foreign-sponsored insurgency in the country. Time has shown that this prediction turned out to be the opposite of what happened.

"Obama had good reason to resent Russia's increasingly assertive foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to imagine it might backfire on its architect, President Vladimir Putin," journalist and historian Michael Petrou wrote for the National Post. "The US president clearly hoped an overstretched Russia would get its fingers burned in Syria and emerge chastened from its adventure in Middle East counterinsurgency."

Policymakers in the US were in for a rude awakening as Russia's limited military engagement in the war-torn Arab nation turned into a success, enhancing Moscow's standing beyond Syrian borders.

"Russia didn't get stuck in a Syrian quagmire. It applied a limited amount of military force to great effect, reversing the tide of the civil war and ensuring Assad will not go unless Putin agrees. From Moscow's perspective, the Kremlin's intervention worked out just fine," he said.

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