Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Adrian Karatnycky cowrites for POLITICO Europe on why the West shouldn’t mistake Russia’s warring in Syria as a sign of strength:
Vladimir Putin has sought to shift the discourse over Russia’s aggression in Ukraine in recent days. His half-hour speech at the U.N. General Assembly last month, timed to reach a prime-time Russian audience, focused on the threats of terrorism and instability in Syria and the Middle East. The bloody war in Ukraine’s Donbas was an afterthought, meriting only a minute of his time.
In a separate meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Russia’s leader again sought to shift the focus to Syria, terrorism and ISIL, while Obama pressed Putin on Ukraine.