It looks like that Syria thing is going swimmingly
by digby
For some people anyway:
Putin and Erdogan Announce Plan for Northeast Syria, Bolstering Russian Influence
Russia’s leader hosted his Turkish counterpart as a U.S.-brokered cease-fire with Kurdish forces came to an end, underscoring Moscow’s emergence as a powerful player in the Middle East. His jets patrol Syrian skies. His military is expanding operations at the main naval base in Syria. He is forging closer ties to Turkey. He and his Syrian allies are moving into territory vacated by the United States.
And on Tuesday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia played host to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, for more than six hours of talks on how they and other regional players will divide control of Syria, a land devastated by eight years of civil war.
The negotiations ended in a victory for Mr. Putin: Russian and Turkish troops will take joint control over a vast swath of formerly Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria, in a move that cements the rapid expansion of Russian influence in Syria at the expense of the United States and its Kurdish former allies.
Under terms of the agreement, Syrian Kurdish forces have six days to retreat more than 20 miles from the border, abandoning land that they had controlled uncontested until earlier this month — when their protectors, the American military, suddenly began to withdraw from the region. The Syrian Kurdish leadership did not immediately respond to the demand.
Mr. Erdogan got most of what he wanted — a buffer zone free of a militia that Turkey regards as a terrorist threat — but it came at the expense of sharing control of the area with Mr. Putin and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, whose rule Mr. Erdogan has long opposed.
“Only if Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is respected can a long-lasting and solid stabilization in Syria be achieved,” Mr. Putin said alongside Mr. Erdogan after the meeting.
“It is important that our Turkish partners share this approach,” Mr. Putin added. “The Turks will have to defend peace and calm on the border together with the Syrians. This can only be done in the atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation.”
Isn't that special?
Russia as the premier power broker in the Middle East isn't inherently terrible except for the fact that millions of Kurds have now been ethnically cleansed and their homes will now be occupied by the non-Kurd Syrian refugees that have been living in Turkey during the Putin-Assad bombardment.
Trump is fine will all this because he thinks they're all shithole countries anyway and is such an ignoramus that he doesn't understand the ramifications of Russia being the most powerful mideast power broker. Trump is simple-minded about how the world works and is completely clueless about what the Russian president might want to achieve in all this that is not in the national interest of the US. Of course, Trump believes that what's in the national interest is what's in his personal interest so perhaps the upcoming election sabotage on his behalf will be more than enough to make up for it.
I just heard on CNN that Assad is so "giddy" about Russia quickly moving troops into northern Syria that he called up Putin to personally congratulate him. So that's nice.
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