PHOTO: US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
In a further analysis of the Obama Administration’s Syria policy and John Kerry’s visit to Russia on Thursday, James Rodgers — author and former BBC correspondent in the Middle East — and I joined Monocle 24’s The Globalist on Thursday morning.
See also Syria Analysis: Kerry Sells Out to Russia Over Assad
Syria Daily, July 14: Kerry Visits Russia With Obama’s Plan for Cooperation
There is also analysis of the US, NATO, and Russian maneuvers over the Baltic States.
Listen from the 18:26 mark:
The Russians are supposed to — in return for coordinated operations against the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra — put pressure on Assad to stop the Syrian regime’s bombing and also possibly to get Assad to return to the table for negotiations.
But let’s just say that the Russian willingness to do that is undermined because they have been deceptive about what they have doing in Syria, ever since they went in last September.
I don’t think the US has much leverage at all over Russia. I think Moscow can say, “We’ll talk, we’ll do this” while continuing to back the Assad regime overtly and covertly, and play for time until this Administration disappears.
