ISIS AND THE JIHADISTS vs PUTIN: 3/4: Putin's War in Syria: Russian Foreign Policy and the Price of America's Absence by Anna Borshchevskaya
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Putins-War-Syria-Russian-Americas/dp/0755634632/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TR9QZFZUPFIN&keywords=putin%27s+war+in+syria&qid=1662137728&s=books&sprefix=putin%27s+war+in+syria%2Cstripbooks%2C61&sr=1-1
Putin intervened in Syria in September 2015, with international critics predicting that Russia would overextend itself and Barack Obama suggesting the country would find itself in a “quagmire” in Syria. Contrary to this, Anna Borshchevskaya argues that in fact Putin achieved significant key domestic and foreign policy objectives without crippling costs, and is well-positioned to direct Syria's future and become a leading power in the Middle East.
This outcome has serious implications for Western foreign policy interests both in the Middle East and beyond. This book places Russian intervention in Syria in this broader context, exploring Putin's overall approach to the Middle East – historically Moscow has a special relationship with Damascus – and traces the political, diplomatic, military and domestic aspects of this intervention. Borshchevskaya delves into the Russian military campaign, public opinion within Russia, as well as Russian diplomatic tactics at the United Nations. Crucially, this book illustrates the impact of Western absence in Syria, particularly US absence, and what the role of the West is, and could be, in the Middle East.
1920 DAMASCUS
Transcript
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| 0:25.0 | Soul traders or limited company directors in the UK can apply. I'm John Bachelor. This is CBSi on the world. Anna Borchefskaya is the author of the |
| 0:39.2 | new book Putin's war in Syria, Russian foreign policy and the price of America's absence. |
| 0:45.2 | Russia is now engaged in, after 2013, the fall of 2013, in Syria. |
| 0:51.2 | However, Anna presents the three ways of Russian engagement that are quite |
| 0:56.3 | distinct from how the Soviet Union handled Afghanistan, even how Yeltsin's |
| 1:02.0 | government handled the first and second Chechen Wars. |
| 1:05.0 | The three phases will do as best we can given Anna's deep reporting here. |
| 1:11.0 | Military, domestic and diplomatic. Military. |
| 1:16.0 | And right away you make the point that the Kremlin's commitment in Syria is to keep Assad in power. Everything is focused on that. Everything domestic |
| 1:27.7 | reporting, everything diplomatic conversation to keep him in power. What did Mr. Putin and his counselors take from Afghanistan and Chechnya |
| 1:36.0 | that they immediately apply to their Syrian intervention? |
| 1:39.0 | The first lesson of Afghanistan is that the Soviet Union relied largely on ground troops. |
| 1:47.0 | This was a major, major conventional troop presence. |
| 1:53.0 | And if you look at how Russia handled itself in Syria, |
| 1:57.0 | they couldn't get away with zero boots on the ground, |
| 2:00.3 | but really this was a primarily aerial, heavily aerial campaign with a naval component. |
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