Well, at least it wasn't heading for Cuba this time. :hmmm:

Could also be his buddies in Iran have give him a heads up on action the Iranians plan to take against Isis in Syria; if Iran goes in hot and heavy, as threatened, Putin may not want to have his troops perhaps caught in the crossfire...

Well, at least Dubbya could lend Putin one of his keepsakes:

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/images...complished.jpg



<O>

Problem with that though is that Iran is pulling 2,500 troops out of Syria.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-se...ps-from-syrai/

Its been confirmed, that Chechen IS dead!:yeah:


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/...rms/ar-BBqsAaa

Well we have accomplished our immediate objectives namely:
- ISIS and extremists ain't going anywhere.
- we keep the bases.
- showed how stronk we are in a prolonged live fire exercise in unfamiliar TMA. Gained lots of valuable experience too.

The bonus is that Assad is stabilized and is now recognized as a party in the peace talks, which is quite some progress when compared to a year ago.

The rest of the story will come out next week when the other shoe drops: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/15/wo...wal/index.html

Well, I have just one word for you ikalugin.










congratulations. :D

The Russians do not lie here - they indeed have acchieved most of their objectives. Its just that due to ignporing reality and wishful thinking the West failed to recognise that the Russians' goals and the West's goals were two different pairs of shoes.

The Russians goal was not to necessarily wipe out the IS. Most of their combat was not focussed on the IS anyway, but any opposition to Assad, no matter which faction. Putin claimed before it began that he was about "to support and strengthen the legal government of Syria", which in Russia's view of things is Assad. And they indeed have achieved that objective. Assad gained ground recently, many if not all the IS' and other opposition groups strongholds are isolated and cut off from supply, the logistcal supply lines are interrupted, parts due to Russia, parts due to Western military as well.

The announced objectives indeed are achieved. And why should the Kremlin want to wipe out the IS when it is so nice a nuisance, or better a PITA, for the West and Europe and America, binds their focus and resources, and destabilises the ME so to notoriously set up new problems for the West? Better keep the sting in your enemy's flank sharp and alive than pulling it out. Also, an active IS will keep the mass migration streams alive, putting Merkel into more trouble and helping to destabilise Europe.

Welcome to the strategic world of Realpolitik in which illusions and ambitioned hopes will lead you nowhere.

The Russians keep their air and naval bases, and can reinforce again their presence in Syria any time they want to do that. And a totally wiped out IS is not in Russia'S interest.

Our objectives were:
- keeping ISIS out of Russian neighbourhood.
- keeping bases in Med.
- showing how stronk!/relevant! we are.
- large scale training in realistic environment.

Now, those were not our objectives:
- full stabilisation of Syria.
- nation building.

Hence we have achieved our objectives, wrecked other's game in the area (Assad was not a party to negotiations before - now he is) and now we could leave. Shame that a western coalition was not deeply commited against ISIS with ground troops.

Not that we won't return if we feel like it.

- There will be parliament elections in mid april. Putin wants to keep Assad in charge, so no pipeline from the gulf to Europe will be built. A sovereign Assad caring and fighting for the country's fate will have more support than a puppet dependent on foreign help.
Additionally: all the foreign fighters in Syria will have no vote - and the legal residents know who to support and who to blame. Those strongly supportive to Assad are still in Syria, while the rest is somewhere.

- The "opposition" will have to show its will to find a peaceful solution in Geneva - just like Assad does. If they fall back to war, the western community of values will have to admit them to be the warmongers.

- ISIS stays a major western problem. It's our child, shall we care for this sting in our flesh. If it regains more power in Syria, the world community can observe who supports it.

- Turkey has no justification to call NATO for help against a Russian threat. The West may finally lose its patience with an Erdogan doing business with ISIS while bombing the Kurds.

- How long did it take the Russians to intervene, after they decided to do so? Could it happen again if necessary?

Edit: We may see some matching Russian behaviour soon to prevent the Iranian version of a pipeline (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Pipeline) passing south of Russian influence into Europe.

If need be we could come back even faster than the first time over because we keep the bases.

You should have hanged Assad and installed a competent puppet.
With mustachio in power you'll be back in a year.

Perhaps Russian intel found out that the rebels backed by Saudi's have heat seeking missiles or isis is warning Russia using envoys to back off or they will use wmd's on the neighborhoods of the homeland. The bold underline is mine the rest is just a guess that Russia is not that dumb to see things are going to get nasty with the enemies back against the wall. :o

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/15/wo...ext/index.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35809974


Sigh.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdmjiT2XIAAldG6.jpg:large

GG Nextmap