Stay updated with breaking news from Deconfliction Talks. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
The challenge for Western policymakers is to avoid viewing Russian activism in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa through an exclusively zero-sum lens. The region’s political disarray, complexities, and especially the unpredictability of local rulers all present built-in buffers to Russian influence—as they do to all external players.
I think putin's objective is nothing less than to have russia replace the united states in the middle east. this has been a russian objective for centuries. he's taking advantage of the president's weakness. at this point, i don't think anything that stands in putin's way. >> ambassador john bolton, thanks so much for being with us this evening. with me now colonel david hunt. what harm can come from letting putin take on this fight in syria? we certainly aren't willing to take it on. >> it solidifies russia's position in the middle east. it gives them a very, very strong base. if assad at t...
Meanwhile, the u.s.-led coalition has been scrambling to catch up with these russian moves and to find some way to salvage their strategy in syria amidst changing facts on the ground. the deconfliction talks after one round seemed not to have prevented things today. very simply, the u.s. does not know what it will do in response to the russian moves, and their lowest common demnominator of avoiding crash is on shaky ground. >> that's the problem. with that specific incident, we're hearing the u.s. has been told if the russian planes come too close, pull back. that's giving that air space over ...
Mark hurtling. welcome, general. >> good morning, carol. >> general, what do you make of this? >> not unanticipated, frankly. i mean, i think anyone who's in the military who has conducted campaigns and operations expected this to happen. even though the diplomacy and the talks back and forth has said -- russia has said they are going against isis, they are an ally of assad. he is the reigning government in syria, and legally he can invite the russians in to do whatever they want. so i did not anticipate that they would not attempt to stabilize and try to expand the area under assad's control,...
Were in an effort to prop up assad, not to fight isis. a lot of consternation about this because it was just yesterday that defense secretary ash carter let it be known that he was beginning to set up mechanisms, procedures to talk to the russians, military to military, about how to deac deconflict operations in the skies over syria. the worry, of course, is russian warplanes flying, u.s. warplanes flying. nobody wants to see an incident. nobody wants to see anybody get shot down inadvertently but where those talks go now, very much an open question. now that the russians have basically said, ...