What was Russia’s Putin up to after the death of Iran’s Soleimani?

On Jan. 7, just days after the airstrike that killed the powerful Iranian officer, Putin flew to Damascus, Syria, to meet with his counterpart, Bashar Assad. More than four years ago, Russian jets first entered the Syrian civil war and decisively swung the conflict in the embattled Syrian president’s favor. It was seen at the time as a major rebuke of U.S. policy as well as a foreign policy coup for Moscow. Both assessments held up.

Following his trip to Damascus, Putin swung through Turkey to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After initially clashing with Erdogan over Syria, Putin has managed to forge close ties with his Turkish counterpart and leverage Ankara’s tensions with Washington to subvert American policy, further Russian goals and undermine NATO cohesion with arms sales to Turkey.

And to top it all off, German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew to Moscow on Jan. 11 to discuss the situation between the U.S. and Iran.

 

Putin’s movements since U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the airstrike on Soleimani have underscored one of the most consequential trends driving events in the Middle East: Russia’s star is rising as U.S. standing in the region is falling.

Putin has made significant gains on the world stage through the decisive use of limited resources and through U.S. blunder or disengagement.

At first glance, the situation between the U.S. and Iran would seem to provide Putin with similar opportunities to unseat Washington as Iraq’s preferred partner. The Trump administration killed Soleimani while the general was on a trip to Iraq. In response, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution asking the U.S. military to vacate Iraqi bases used by the American military in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria. It is unclear whether a withdrawal will happen, but U.S.-Iraqi relations are so far the major casualty in Trump’s larger spat with Iran.

But some analysts doubt whether this void, were it left open by the U.S., is one that Russia could fill.

Arthur Julien

Article URL : https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-putin-death-iran-soleimani-174708670.html