After the missile strike the US on the Syrian airbase “Sirat” the promise of Russia to protect Bashar al-Assad as President, representing the only legitimate force in Syria, needs to be revised. So, after military operations of the Americans, Russia has restricted its presence in Syria protecting Assad from all military attempts to overthrow his regime. This does not mean that to attack Russia took upon itself obligations to protect the regime. The fact that in the period before it had all the possibilities to achieve a political settlement of the Syrian crisis through negotiations. In addition, Russia could achieve such an outcome of the negotiation process, in which its interests would be taken into account, and presence in the region is preserved. Russia has offered generations of Syrians to secure mode, that is, a political institution, and not the Syrian state as a whole. This approach made it the only country that was able to overthrow Assad, to put an end to the hostilities and open the way to a political process which would develop in accordance with its interests. Then the world community would recognize the merit of Russia in the conflict settlement, and she could find an excuse for military intervention in Syria.
After impact, a strong player, how was Russia, can not make a choice in favor of the settlement of the Syrian crisis through military means to overthrow the regime and to punish him, and ceased to participate in the settlement. Russia, which promised to eradicate terrorism on Syrian soil and in fact contributed to this, now apologizes for having acted in Syria, almost unilaterally — it only helped Tehran and the Syrian regime. An American missile strike changed the situation radically, making allies with criminals and protectors of criminals. Thus, Washington became an influential participant in the negotiation process, which is able to conduct its own policy and identify strategic benefits. For US it is not necessary to support a particular party to the conflict or to downplay its role in resolving the Syrian conflict, as it was during the presidency of Obama.
All this suggests that Russia more or less lost their position in Syria, and it does not remain anything, except how to agree on the terms of cooperation, which invites her Washington. It became evident that reliance on Israel that has made the Russian leadership to protect their interests and use tel Aviv as a means of pressure on Washington, proved meaningless, as the current President of the United States trump has promised to protect Israel and punish the main partners of Russia in Syria — Hezbollah and Tehran. Thus, for Russia, the Syrian crisis has become a problem, as Washington has found an opportunity and there is no political solution that would be in favor of Russia. The same goes for any military solution to the conflict. It is necessary to admit that Moscow is unable to maintain its presence in Syria. The choice in favor of continuing to support the regime — a policy that is doomed to failure, but abandoning it will not bring Russia any good, as it was in the past, when all the levers of influence on the Syrian crisis were in her hands. Russia was late because the American military intervention was a great surprise for her. Now, any military action by the Americans could easily do away with Assad, any Syrian will be able to take away his power, and then Russia will be forced to look for ways to maintain its presence in Syria, and the way of a safe withdrawal from it.
