The Kremlin is well aware of the game of deterrence. Felt it on Wednesday, Secretary of state USA Rex Tillerson (Rex Tillerson) during his first visit to Moscow. While President Vladimir Putin has always found time for the German foreign Minister, Sigmar Gabriel (Sigmar Gabriel) or the Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer (Horst Seehofer), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday morning about “a certain probability” of meeting with Tillerson.
Finally in the evening, Putin still found two hours for the new chief diplomat of the United States. These fluctuations apparently can be interpreted as part of the Russian response to the US attack on the air force base of the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the statements Tillerson.
The Secretary of state has already caused Moscow’s discontent. Before his arrival in Russia Tillerson stated that, in his words, it is unclear reacted if Russia are serious about their task or were just “incompetent” in order to deter Assad from using chemical weapons. In addition, U.S. Secretary of state demanded that the Kremlin clarified its position on the war in Syria, or Moscow on the US side and their partners — or on the side of Syrian President Assad, whose allies are Iran and militias Hezbollah.
Before Tillerson stepped on the land of Russia, it was clear that the Kremlin is not going to accept an ultimatum from Secretary of state. “To come to us with an ultimatum is useless, it’s just counterproductive,” — said the foreign Ministry in Moscow. It is pointedly said of the meeting with its allies on Thursday with the Syrian foreign Minister, and on Friday in the triple format with the Minister of foreign Affairs of Iran.
Voted Putin, state television showed excerpts of one interview with the President. The degree of confidence with the Americans at the working level — not better, but “probably even worse, especially in the military sphere”, — he said. It sounded almost as if Putin still lacks the much-hated former President Barack Obama.
“He’s not very interested in history”
The Kremlin can’t accurately assess what they want the United States and especially President Donald trump in Syria, and are still hoping to sign with the US administration kind of partnership. Therefore, Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sought tonight to highlight a few joint moments, however small they still were. He spoke with Tillerson over four hours.
According to him, Putin is willing to renew the agreement on the avoidance of clashes in Syrian airspace, but provided that will struggle together with terrorism. But Washington has previously said that despite Putin’s statement on the suspension of the Memorandum, the Russian and American military will continue to coordinate their actions with each other. In addition, an agreement was reached to establish a joint working group to improve dialogue. Representatives of both ministries should now proceed to resolve the “pragmatic” and “without emotion” “irritants” from the reign of Obama.
While Tillerson spoke about the extreme deterioration of relations between the two countries, Lavrov stressed the pragmatism of his partner: “well, Rex did say that he is a new man and not very interested in history.”
“The rule of the Assad family is going to end”
What the US can offer for the refusal of Russia from Assad, the former oil tycoon Tillerson was unable to understand and in the environment. “Our view is clear: the rule of the Assad family is going to end”. He merely said that the transfer of the Assad government needs to be “orderly”, but the details he did not name.
For the Kremlin it would be a sign of weakness just give up on the Syrian ruler after so many years of support. Putin will go for it only if Washington offered Russia a political solution that will allow you to save face.
Long-term relationships with the Assad regime to the Kremlin’s too valuable to just abandon them. For Moscow, the Assad guarantees at least some stability in a country beset by war. According to the Russian argument that Syria should continue to exist, not to fall apart without control and not to descend into chaos, like Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein (Saddam Hussein) or Libya after Qaddafi (Gaddafi).
The Foundation of Putin’s policy is that there can be no change of power as a result of intervention from outside. Russia sees this as Western interference. Such an understanding of things also determines the political agenda of Russia, when the authorities warn against revolutions like the one that happened in Ukraine and that will only lead to chaos. “This is not the case just to overthrow the government, — said Lavrov in the environment. — We already know this kind of experiments when they want to overthrow any dictator, totalitarian or autocratic leader.” It is up to the Syrian people.
Complicated strategy of Putin
The foreign Minister has once again demonstrated Moscow’s willingness to negotiate. Russia cannot afford an escalation of the war in Syria. It would be too expensive and would threaten the lives of Russian soldiers. Moscow once again is wasting time.
On the one hand, Moscow has sent into the Mediterranean, two military vessels and enhanced missile defense. On the other hand, Putin himself is trying to instill the doubt when on Wednesday, he again made two statements about the chemical attack in Khan Sheyhun: either as a result of the Syrian airstrikes were amazed at the warehouses of the chemical weapon of insurgents and chemical warfare agents penetrated the atmosphere, or the attack was staged to discredit the Assad government.
In senior government circles in the U.S. consider these Putin’s statements unconvincing. For them, it is clear that the attack using nerve gas is the responsibility of the Syrian regime. This is not the first attack, said Tillerson. He spoke of the almost 50 cases.
Trump: Russia knew of attack with poison gas
In the evening, after his meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Jens Stoltenberg) the trump again claimed the President of the United States suspects Russia that it knew in advance about the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria. “I wish I could say that they didn’t know it, but they certainly could know it, trump said Wednesday in Washington. — They were there.”
Russia wants to entrust a third party investigation into the attack in Khan Sheyhun, Lavrov said. According to him, at least at this point, the achieved unity with the United States.
Later, Russia has once again blocked a UN security Council resolution introduced by Britain, France and the USA. It in the strongest terms condemned the attack using poison gas and called for the Assad regime to allow international investigators to this place.
Moscow for the eighth time since the start of the Syrian civil war, vetoes the resolution.
