David J. Kramer is president of Freedom House.
Can everyone please stop pretending that Russia can be a partner with the United States and others in solving the crisis in Syria?
Recently, there has been a flurry of visits to Moscow by senior Western and U.N. officials: U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon was there in mid-April, followed by Secretary of State John F. Kerry in early May, then British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. All have gone to meet with President Vladimir Putin to seek, among other things, the Russian leadership’s help regarding Syria. How has that turned out?
Reports in the New York Times on Friday indicate that despite objections from U.S. and Israeli leaders, Russia has transferred sophisticated anti-ship cruise missiles to the regime in Damascus. Such weapons significantly bolster Bashar al-Assad’s ability to blunt any outside intervention that would include airstrikes, a naval blockade or a no-fly zone. Moreover, according to the Wall Street Journal, Russia has sent at least a dozen warships toward its naval base in Tartus, Syria, over the past several months to signal the West to think twice before intervening.
In addition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated that Iran, Assad’s other major supporter, must participate in the conference on Syria that Russia plans to co-host in June. Russia has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria. Just days ago, Russia was one of only 12 countries to vote against a resolution in the General Assembly — in which no country has veto authority — while 107 counties voted in favor.
Despite all that, President Obama held out hope during his news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the June conference “may yield results” by bringing Syrian opposition and regime representatives together around the table. More than 80,000 people have been killed and over 5 million Syrians have been displaced as a result of Assad’s slaughter of his own people. Yet Obama and other leaders still hang on to their delusions that a negotiated settlement will end the fighting.
The lack of intervention by Western powers has left a vacuum in Syria that is filling with extremist forces who are aligning with the opposition. This has radicalized the war and made it virtually impossible to strike any sort of peace deal and agreement on a transitional government — which, Russian officials insist, should not automatically exclude Assad.
Putin is determined to prevent Assad’s fall from power, fearing that a like-minded leader’s demise would reverberate throughout his own country. Russia’s missile transfer and deployment of ships off the Syrian coast underscore Putin’s desire to eliminate the possibility of a U.S.-led effort to intervene and to preserve the Russian base in Tartus. The actions also reflect Putin’s utter disdain for the United States, which he views as weak and needing him more than he needs it.
Beyond Russia’s policy toward Syria, examples of that disdain are plentiful, even in the past two weeks. The day Kerry arrived, a former senior official at the U.S. Embassy now in the private sector was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for 17 hours without food or water, interrogated and then deported. Putin then kept Kerry waiting for three hours before their meeting. Two U.S. Embassy officials were met by a Kremlin-friendly camera crew when they arrived at the home of a civil-society activist for a meeting; the camera crew was waiting for them after the meeting as well. The recent parading of Ryan Fogle before the cameras as Russia crowed about capturing a U.S. “spy” was a slap in the face to the United States. And as if that weren’t enough, Russia’s Federal Security Service publicized the alleged identity of the CIA station chief in Moscow, an extraordinary breach of the protocol followed by the two countries’ intelligence agencies.
And yet Obama has created the impression that he’s looking forward to meeting Putin on the margins of next month’s Group of Eight meeting in Northern Ireland and at the G-20 meeting in Russia in September. The U.S. ambassador in Moscow has expressed hope that Obama will attend next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, in southern Russia. This has become painful to watch.
The Obama administration ought to see Putin for who he really is: a nasty, corrupt, authoritarian leader who holds the West, particularly the United States, in sheer contempt and is overseeing the worst crackdown on human rights in Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union. It is time to push back on his bullying and egregious behavior and preserve some self-respect. The Russian regime will not help us on Syria, and Putin is no friend.
WarSclerotic 
May 19, 2013 at 3:16 PM
I’m enjoying Putin messing the Obama administration about lol 😀
May 19, 2013 at 3:55 PM
WAKE UP AMERICA THE WRITINGS ON THE WALL
“The Obama administration ought to see Putin for who he really is: a nasty, corrupt, authoritarian leader who holds the West, particularly the United States, in sheer contempt and is overseeing the worst crackdown on human rights in Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union. It is time to push back on his bullying and egregious behavior and preserve some self-respect. The Russian regime will not help us on Syria, and Putin is no friend.”
May 19, 2013 at 3:59 PM
I will say this from what i was being told last night there is now a very real chance of a attack directly on russia it wont take much more from assad and putin,and preparations are ready on the ground,i hope israel realizes that this will be a fight to the death.. Israel had it acted sooner would not have found itself a cog in something much bigger
May 19, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Mr. Kramer did not pen this column for you and me because he is stating the obvious. But in an attempt to reach the absolute moron America has for a Secretary of State; and a President who is bent on being more “flexible” (read appeasement) with Russia. Kerry has been trying to implement the flexible part of the Obama Russian strategy which is: if we are nice to them, maybe they will be nice to us. Please, are their any Jews with brains in the White House who can explain the his imperial highness that such a strategy with the Russian bullies will not exactly work out well. I am sure that Jerusalem already knows that Kerry is brainless. I have followed him since he starred in the Vietnam hearings in the early 1970’s. The only thought in his mind is what is good for John Kerry. That’s it…that is all there is. Actually he did do one thing that I admired: he bedded and married one of the richest women on earth (I tipped my hat to him). As Secretary if State his aim is not to screw up the possibility of running for president in 2016. Any diplomatic success will be something that absolutely unavoidable so it falls into his lap but he will still win prizes for brilliance.
The Russians have their pawns all over the board against a totally confused American government. Bolden, the Russians send a bishop into the Mediterranean because America only has two destroyers paddling around. The only player the Russians are terrified of is Israel because Israel understands the game. I don’t know what back channel conversations, if any, are going on between Damascus and Jerusalem but if there are none, and Assad’s threats are real, with missiles pointing to Tel Aviv, then Israel must play a major piece and fry every electronic circuit in Syria with electronic pulse weapons. If Assad still has anything to hit back with, then put him out of his misery. And I mean knock off the Syrian government.
Tell the Russians that if their fingers even twitch towards their holsters their bishop is going to the bottom of the Mediterranean.
Stop playing f king diplomatic games. Jews should know better than take existential threats lightly.
May 19, 2013 at 4:05 PM
Well said but its really too late now,my camp tryed to warn this was russias plan from two years ago only to be threatened into a discontented silence by the obama administration,there have been times when we thought obama was a kgb sleeper,he is more concerned with keeping the Russians happy than his own people
May 19, 2013 at 5:02 PM
Russia is helping Syria – they’re just not helping the side the US wants.
Honestly I don’t know which would be worse – Syria under Assad, or Syria under the radical Islamists. The secular opposition has long been marginalized and there are no longer any good options.
May 19, 2013 at 5:54 PM
Russia Ready to Develop Long-Range Air Defense System with Turkey
http://en.ria.ru/military_news/20130519/181235938/Russia-Ready-to-Develop-Long-Range-Air-Defense-System-with.html
May 19, 2013 at 6:06 PM
BiBi watch your back !
May 19, 2013 at 8:04 PM
stop playing devils advocate lol,turkey will never get away with that unless its planning leaving NATO,but then that wouldn’t surprise me
May 19, 2013 at 9:55 PM
Is it normal for you to contradict your self ??
May 20, 2013 at 12:24 AM
no sense of humor joop,tut tut in game you need one
May 19, 2013 at 8:28 PM
Surprise, surprise.
I almost agree with everyting Norm said.
I don’t think that Israel should EMPify Syria (yet)..
Obavez is increasingly becoming a joke. Who can take him seriously?
With Bibi it’s another story. Putin is taking Bibi’s threats seriously.
The Russians know that there are certain things that Israel cannot tolerate.
Even without the recent naval buildup obavez has shown that he will not intervene in the Syrian conflict.
The buildup serves two purposes,
1. The nice pictures on Russian TV that show that Russia is still a military world power.
2. Hightening the risk of a Russia/NATO clash should further prevent a NATO intervention.
Other than that I don’t believe that the Russians want to get involved in a direct military confrontation with NATO or Israel.
They would also have to tolerate the destruction of the S300 by Israel.
Although they are also directed at NATO their primary purpose is to deter Israel from further strikes.
Such strikes will not alter the internal balance of power in Syria because they neither help Assad nor the Rebels.
Their aim is Iran and Hizbollah. And so I believe that the S300 are delivered on Iran’s behalf. This is the price the Russians have to pay to the devil for his help.
Assad losing the S300 will not bother them that much.
One final remark. Anyone who hopes for Russian help for anything is an idiot.
The Russians are not interested in solutions. They are interested in keeping the status quo. This way the can act as a global power whose help is needed to keep international conflicts under control.
This way the Russians can also use the bad guys like Assad and the ayatollahs as bargaining chip in the international game of power.
To get what they want they can broker a deal that works at best for a only short time.
At least that is their strategy.
This is a kind of good cop/bad cop game.
So the Russians are the last people on the planet who are interested in lasting solutions.
May 19, 2013 at 9:09 PM
Russia does not have a problem with Israel defending itself, but it does have a problem with any NATO action into Syria.
May 19, 2013 at 9:32 PM
well were hearing thats almost certain now intervention russia has miscalculated as usual
May 19, 2013 at 11:11 PM
Another question.
Will the currently unfolding scandals (IRS, AP, Benghazi and possibly other scandals) affect US-Mideast-policy?
If so, how?
What do you think?
May 20, 2013 at 12:31 AM
There is another struggle going on too between the pentagon and the white house,i think that impeachments on the card in the future for obama,what is really worrying is will it be possible to fix and clean up his mess
May 20, 2013 at 12:41 AM
http://www.debka.com/article/22980/Syrian-Hizballah%E2%80%99s-capture-of-Qusayr-opens-direct-weapons-route-to-Lebanon