International Relations Blog Posts

Two ways, one conflict: US and Russia

From Europe to the Middle East. The conflict between the US and Russia has moved to another board. The annexation of the province of Crimea and the armed conflict in this country face the old powers of the Cold War for a year and a half ago. Syrian civil war, which since 2011 has left more than 310,000 casualties, is the new territory where President Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin measure their influence. Ukraine froze a weird relationship. As it was seen the last week in New York during the UN General Assembly, Syria is considered a more complex issue. Washington and Moscow struggle in parallel coalitions. At the same time, they are forced to work together to defeat the jihadists. Maybe the same goal, but not the same means.

Isolated, sanctioned, sidelined by Washington and its allies for its actions in Ukraine, Putin returns to the center of the geopolitical equation. The place is no longer Europe, but the Middle East. By sending military aid to the regime of Assad in Syria, Russian President stands as key element in the solution to a bloody war that has crippled Obama and the Europeans.

The US and Russia compete for diagnosing the causes of the war in Syria. For USA, the guilty is the dictator Bashar Assad and the repression of the protests, which erupted four and a half years ago in the heat of the Arab Spring. For Russia, Western interference is the source of chaos in the region. As I said before, Obama and Putin differ on ways to end the war. The US says that without a new leader in Syria, the ISIS will not be defeated: Assad must go. The Russian replies that Assad is the guarantor of stability and encouraged his supporters because they are the ones who are fighting with the jihadists. The strategy against jihadists puts both presidents from opposite sides; it became clear in New York. Obama held a summit with leaders of the countries that are part the coalition, sponsored by the US, against the ISIS and violent extremism.

Obama stood coalition a year ago. At that time, the progress of ISIS in Iraq and Syria alarmed Western capitals and the US began bombing both countries, deployed 3,000 military advisers in Iraq, trained and armed to moderate Syrian rebels. Russia does not belong to this coalition. Their representatives in New York disagreed with the summit, similar to the one held a year ago in the same city. They argued that the US intended to replace the role of the UN. They complained that Kosovo participate in the meeting, recognized by 110 countries, but not Russia. The Russians propose their own coalition. Putin said he is open to other countries to participate in the plan and share efforts. In his speech before the UN General Assembly, Russian President compared the coalition with which, led by Roosevelt and Stalin, defeated Hitler in World War II.

 Is the United States the problem of all this issue? Russia is playing a confusing and selfish role, only accepting its own conditions with no external inferences. Is it a new exhibition of power? Is it a new pre-scenario of cold war? There are questions that only next months or years can answer.  New York meetings have staged the rare diplomatic dance between Obama and Putin, a mixture of seduction and rejection, of rivalry and cooperation. Both have more than two years (since before the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine) without holding a formal meeting. They do not hide their mutual dislike. Putin feels besieged by the expansion of the European Union and NATO. Obama believes that the Russian leader sees a Western plan to isolate where no more than a will to enforce international standards.

Despite these facts, Putin looks has learned nothing about recent history. The years have passed and the only way to world sake is democracy, but not a democracy hidden behind a fake tyrant, as Putin is. Tyrant used to support tyrants as it is happening now with Putin and Assad. Western community must put all the efforts together in order to stop this anti democratic wave leaded by Russia again. Is supporting a tyrant the solution to defeat a terrorist group? Obviously not, it is like extinguish a fire just to light another.