Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign in Syria has already had considerable complexity—Daesh (ISIS) said they downed the Russian airliner last month over the involvement, while other world powers have pointed out that Moscow’s ‘war of Daesh’ looks a lot more like a war on Assad’s opposition.
He came into the spotlight again at the last G20 meeting, where he vowed that now his warplanes would actually begin targeting the hardline militants.
Now, just after Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet Tuesday, everyone’s wondering what Putin will do next. But what has he been thinking so far? Here are four things to know.
1. A cold war might be brewing with the US, just more subtly this time. Conflicting alliances exist despite the unanimous pledges to make defeating Daesh a priority. Consider the announced entrance of 50 US special forces troops in Syria, just moments after Russia’s new bombing campaign. Or the striking of US-backed rebel targets by Russian warplanes straight into the campaign’s beginning.
2. The situation in Syria is closer to home for Russia than the US, both geographically and in terms of fighters. According to Salon, at least 7,000 radical Islamists from Russia are now fighting in Syria and Iraq. And almost a third of them hail from the Caucasus region, which has heavy traffic in and out of Syria. Americans have joined Daesh too, but in smaller numbers—US intelligence officers said the number was over 150 earlier this year.
3. Memories of Libya haunt Putin’s decision making. Russian opposition the US’s insistence on toppling Assad comes down to history, argues Salon—why trust Washington to handle Syria better than Libya?
By Elizabeth Tarbell
