This is The View from 22 from The Spectator. Subscribe from just £1 a week at spectator.com.

Welcome to The View from 22 podcast. I'm Isabel Hardman, the assistant editor of The Spectator.

In this week's issue, Owen Matthews discusses Vladimir Putin's end game in Syria.

He says Russia's bombing of Aleppo this week was intended to send a clear message that the Russian president is in charge.

But Owen says Putin's strategy is his riskiest yet.

What does it mean for the hopes of peace in war ravaged Syria?

And could it be a good thing after all if Putin's intervention does bring an end to the conflict?

Joining Owen is Emeritus Professor of Russian History at St Anthony's College, Oxford, Robert's Service.

Also in the magazine, the spectator's political editor James Forsyth writes that conservatives used to think as split in their party on the EU referendum would be a good problem to have, as it would have meant they had won the election.

With that good problem now here ahead of today's EU summit, is it all turning into a bit of a mess?

Downing Street is doing its best to put pressure on Tory MPs to back the renegotiation package. But with the likes of Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, yet to say

which way they'll stand, could the Tory's good problem be turning sour? With James to discuss,

is Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform. And James Bartholome, writing in The Spectator, says

we've got it all wrong about left-wingers. He says they've actually got it pretty tough. James argues

that those on the right should be offering left-wingers kindness and sympathy, because they have to do

without a whole range of pleasures, including gulf, bridge and drinking fine wines.

Joining James to debate whether we should hug a lefty is Rod Liddle. First up, what is Putin's endgame in Syria?

Owen Matthews says part of Russia's plan in Syria is to distract international attention from

unfinished business in Ukraine. But it is also more than that. He writes that Putin's

intervention in Syria might be an act of reckless geopolitical buccaneering. But it's also worth

considering if Russia does help Assad win decisively and peace breaks out. Is Putin's plan really so

terrible? Is the devil we know better than the devil we don't?

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