The Islamist terrorist assault in Paris on November 13, traced in part to the Syria crisis, has conclusively broken what the Barack Obama administration had claimed to be Russia’s international isolation over its aggression in Ukraine. The Paris attack was the turning point in a series of events (all against the backdrop of failed Western policies) that turned Russian President Vladimir Putin from a controversial, uncomfortable, downright adversarial, or rogue figure (as the full gamut of Western perceptions ran) into a potential ally against international terrorism. Moreover, Russia’s military intervention in Syria turns Putin into a major regional stakeholder (see …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation