Analysis: Putin’s Syria operation is a bid to regain status as major global player

By Jill Dougherty (original source CNN)

“On Russian TV — breathtaking video of missiles launched from Russian ships in the Caspian Sea, streaking into the night sky, racing almost a thousand miles to their targets in Syria, exploding, the reporter boasts, no more than nine feet from their targets.

Russia’s surprise strategy in Syria, a ruthless triad of military attack, diplomatic maneuvering and verbal broadsides against the West, has shocked the United States and its allies.

President Vladimir Putin is making one thing crystal clear: He will go to the mat to keep the Syrian President in power, at least for now.”

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