You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

0
1

[–] SiWofos 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Putin's a strong tactician: he's won every engagement from maintaining Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh as levers against potential NATO members, to pacifying Chechnya and putting Georgia and Ukraine in their place. (However, while Russia has gone from hell to pretty good during his reign, he doesn't appear to be playing a particularly long-term game, as the current sanction mess attests. But I might be wrong.)

But looking near term: his ability to trammel mischievous Muslims and not care what the world thinks of him puts him in a good position here. If Russian engagement does "escalate" the conflict, the possible options are: Russia props up Assad and wipes out ISIS or the USA and Turkey arms the fucking Islamic State in an attempt to bleed Russia in a long conflict. Is the USA really callous enough to do that, just to make Putin look silly?