To russia with love from president trump

To russia with love from president trump

The biggest gainer, in geopolitical terms, from President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria’s “blood-stained sands” has been Russia. The abrupt removal of US troops from the Kurdish area along Syria’s border with Turkey was treated by Turkey as a green light for moving into Syrian territory to drive the Kurds out of proximity with Turkey, where a homegrown separatist Kurdish movement has long been suppressed by the government. As Turkish forces advanced and the Kurdish militia, which had fought along with America and its allies to drive Islamic State radicals from what had been proclaimed the Caliphate, were forced to retreat and strike a deal with the Syrian army of Bashar al-Assad and its Russian backers.

Russia’s leader Putin met Turkey’s president Erdogan at Putin’s dacha at Sochi, and struck a deal that guaranteed the safety of the Kurds, provided they retreated 30 km south of the Turkish border. Russian monitors would be stationed in Syria to enforce the terms of the agreement. Effectively, Russia is now the principal world power that preserves peace in the Middle East. In the process, it accomplishes three other tasks. One, it drives a wedge between Turkey and its Nato allies. Two, the move extends and reinforces the authority of President Assad over a larger tract of Syria as the civil war concludes, while also extending the influence of Syria’s backer Iran in the region. And, three, Russia firmly inserts itself as an ally of the West in containing the Islamic State — Russia it is who has to prevent IS prisoners, who still remain in the area being vacated by the Kurds, being released.

President Trump’s America First policy, thus, has strengthened America’s erstwhile superpower rival, and Russia’s partner and America’s emerging superpower rival China.