Putin jockeying for deal with U.S. on Syria

What is destabilizing and counter productive is the Western support for an insurgency totally dominated by Al Qaeda and ISIS.

The article says, "Signs of an ongoing Russian military buildup in Syria have drawn U.S. concerns..." It once said, "Signs of an ongoing Russian military buildup in Afghanistan have drawn U.S. concerns..." but nobody remember that time. He is a dangerous manipulator.

I couldn't even finish reading this BS. Can anyone remember a staged gas attack on civilians? Who's destabilizing?

The problem is the U.S. has adopted a policy of indirect intervention after Bush stuck American soldiers in Iraq. Afghanistan was the correct battle after 9/11 because Al Qaeda was there, but Iraq was gratuitous and caused serious issues in Afghanistan by drawing needed troops and equipment.

As a result of the problems Iraq caused, the U.S. has only played an outside role in the Arab Spring, and they have been doing the same in Syria. Russia learned that caution after their invasion of Afghanistan.

Turkey should the principal player to keep Syria, IS and Al Qaeda in Syria in check since they share a border with Syria, but Turkey is more interested in waging a decades long war against the Kurds in Northern Iraq and Syria. If someone should act against Syria, IS or Al Qaeda in Syria, it should be Turkey.

The U.S. is training Syrian rebels to battle IS, but it hasn't been very successful because: (1) vetting our radicals, war criminals, and people who only want to attack Assad eliminates over 90% of the candidates, (2) viable candidates don't always pass the training, (3) rebel commanders are inexperienced and have failed to protect those who finished the training or their families, (4) Al Qaeda and IS have used more sophisticated intelligence operations against the rebels. The rebels that have been trained are in daily contact with U.S. controllers, and they direct U.S. air strikes against Al Qaeda and IS.

The comments that the U.S.is supporting Al Qaeda and IS is just absurd Russian propaganda.

The Russians are only interested in their Mediterranean Navy base leased from the Assad regime. They are not interested in Al Qaeda or IS. They will only work to keep those rebels wanting to attack Assad in check to preserve the Assad regime, which keeps their Mediterranean base open. Russia wants to keep that navy base so bad that Russia will forcefully keep it (and point fingers to the U.S.' Guantanamo base as an incorrect justification) if the Assad regime fails.

@viking68"The comments that the U.S. is supporting All Qaeda and IS is just absurd Russian propaganda".

The U.S. have been supporting anti-Assad rebels in Syria since the very beginning. Those rebels formed a core of ISIS. Further, the U.S. created the mess in Iraq, Lybia and Syria. Now people from those countries are moving to Europe.

Observers in Moscow say the Russian maneuvering could be part of a plan to send troops to Syria to fight the Islamic State group in the hope of fixing fractured ties with the West. By playing with the possibility of joining the anti-IS coalition, Putin may hope to win a few key concessions. His main goal: the lifting of Western sanctions and the normalization of relations with the United States and the European Union

Very strange indeed : Putin support Assad from the beginning, it was a base for the conflict with US who want to change regime in Syria using islamists..

So Putin still support Assad.

US still support islamists...

Obama is very embarassed after learning the ISIS/ISIL got out of their control and getting stronger than ever after a whole year of bombardment, if Russia success to contain or defeat the "Daesh" it might be America's doomsday of global influences.

Let the Russians get on with it I say.

They won't be able to afford it for long, and besides - it will be fun to watch their rusting air force fall apart playing whack-a-mole out there in the desert.

There's boat loads of Syrian refugees in Europe right now - the fit men need training and sending back with a NATO ground force hopefully including the Russians. Anything else is pissing the wind.

@Madverts"it will be fun to watch their rusting air force"

It will be really fun to watch how their air force transform your 'land of free' (stolen from Natives) into contaminated glass parking lot.

Hmm, lots of bluster, but no comments in response to Russia's Navy base in Tartus, Syria being the real goal.

Russia is only interested in preserving Assad so that they can remain in Tartus.

Russia doesn't want to target Al Qaeda or ISIS. They already have their hands full with Chechen terrorists and don't want new terrorists groups interested in attacking Russia.