Russia reclaims leadership role over Syrian crisis

When US president Barack Obama  declared conducting punitive strikes  unilaterally  against Syria after August 21 chemical weapons attack,it drove the world on the edge of a war.
There were loud talks of this action degenerating  into an extended war. But Russia solidly resisted such strikes. Instead  Putin moved  his warships in the region and ultimately succeeded in clinching a US-Russian diplomatic agreement. This agreement signed in Geneva on September 14th now envisages  to place Syrian chemical weapons  under international control for destroying the stock piles of chemical weapons.

Russia’s success in averting the strikes on Syrian chemical  weapons sites has come as an amazing diplomatic victory for Putin, reclaiming his country’s leadership role in the Mid eastern region.

Now US unilateral leadership role in Mid East  has almost come to an end.
Initially US aimed to conduct the military strikes with the support of European  powers viz France  and Britain. But Britain parliament  later refused  to authorize participation in the proposed  strikes. While French desire to maintain the threat of military action to involve itself in diplomatic role  was also marginalized  after US-Russia concluded the agreement.

Kerry’s tour of EU region  to shore up support in that region  also did not materialize  in view of European Union stubborn  reluctance  that also contributed to Barack Obama’s  wavering attitude   giving rise  to Russia’s diplomatic triumph.

An added reason  for Obama’s yielding to the pressure  from various quarters though was the overwhelming sentiments  of the US people against getting involved  in military action yet again after  two disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Russia’s diplomatic victory against US in the Syrian crisis has substantially enhanced its prestige and status. No wonder countries of Mid East and Eurasia /Central Asia  will now be seen gravitating towards Russia  to a greater extent.

US president Barack Obama’s move  would have bypassed UN authority that has sought  to deny big powers  the right to veto in such important matters which brought China  and Russia publicly denouncing the threatened strikes.


Eventually, US prestige  has suffered substantially while US shutdown  further damages its reputation when there are talks even of US technical default due to non raising of borrowing limits by the US government.

This diplomatic victory fits well into  Vladimir Putin’s already launched plan of bringing post-Soviet countries into a Russian led Eurasian Union  launched in November 2011 when presidents  of Kazakhstan and Belarus signed an agreement with Russia to launch the Eurasian Union and make it fully operational by 2015. Serous efforts are in progress to include  most of the post-Soviet countries in this block as a counterweight to the EU block  so that Russia comes to exercise political  and economic power in the region comprising Central Asia ,Eurasia  and other contiguous countries.

While Russia is engaged  in giving a shape  to this region to also knit it into an economic might.. Thus Russia’s amibition and efforts have also started bearing fruit with the instant victory in Syrian crisis.