IN FOCUS: PUTIN GOES TO NEW YORK
Putin heads to the United Nations General Assembly in New York
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin will storm into New York Monday seeking to prove he will not be isolated at his first appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in a decade.
With a jackknife military and diplomatic pivot toward Syria, Putin has tried to mitigate the damage of a year’s adventurism in Ukraine in a defiant gambit he hopes will appeal to the West’s cold logic and need.
The sudden deployment to Syria of Russian warplanes and battle tanks has upended the West’s plan of freezing out Russia and helped prompt a head-tohead meeting between Putin and U. S. President Barack Obama on Monday in New York that was unthinkable just weeks ago.
In Moscow, Russian officials, including foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, have declared Russia’s call for a coalition against ISIL militants is gaining traction in the West. Though the White House said Obama’s core message at the meeting with Putin would focus on Ukraine and not Syria, it appears the Russians at least have a foot in the door.
A senior Western diplomat in Moscow this week said there is a growing appetite for dialogue with Putin about Syria, particularly as Europe faces an unprecedented flood of migrants, many fleeing the war in Syria.
“He (Putin) is not the one who needs a deal. He has time on his side. It is us who needs a deal more,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Whatever happens in Syria, we know that he will probably be a part of it. Meanwhile, we see that he is attempting to steer the conversation away from Ukraine entirely.”
The road to any compromise between Russia and the West will face a steep climb, as anger over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in Ukraine’s southeast shattered diplomatic ties at most levels and driven relations to their worst since the end of the Cold War. Even if Putin is able to secure meetings with Western leaders, it does not ensure any results.
Though fighting has decreased recently in Ukraine, progress following a road map out of the conflict called the Minsk Accords has come to a standstill. Meanwhile, the appearance of Russian forces in Syria has jump-started concerns that the Kremlin is doubling down on Syrian President Bashar Assad or may accidentally come into conflict with Western forces.
Speaking before world leaders on Monday, Putin will attack the United States’ use of sanctions, Lavrov told reporters, likely including the individual and sectoral sanctions imposed on Russia last summer over the Ukraine crisis.
But overwhelmingly, officials and analysts said, he will focus on the Syrian crisis and the rising threat of international terrorism.
Lavrov focused his efforts on Syria at a bilateral summit with European diplomats Tuesday in Moscow. It did not include specific proposals on Syria, Western attendees said, only an invitation from the Russian government for cooperation.
Perhaps the thorniest issue dividing Russia and the West is the future of Assad, whom U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Russia not to defend this week. The U.S. has demanded that Assad eventually step down in any settlement to the conflict. Russian officials deny they are protecting Assad, who faced a series of military defeats that alarmed advisers on the Kremlin’s Syria policy this summer, convincing them he may require more direct support.
Critics say Russia’s focus on terrorism is misdirection, citing data that Assad’s army is responsible for more than seven times as many deaths as ISIL in the first six months of 2015.
According to satellite imagery and U.S. officials, Russia has 28 military jets, 14 helicopter gunships and transports, T-90 main battle tanks and surface-to-air missile systems now stationed in Latakia, an Assad stronghold in Syria’s northwest. Kerry on Tuesday said the deployment “basically represents force protection,” because most of the jets are meant for ground attack.
Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, declined to comment on media reports Thursday that Russia would consider carrying out airstrikes in Syria even if a deal with the West on military cooperation is not struck.
Whatever happens in Syria, we know that he (Putin) will probably be apart of it.
WESTERN DIPLOMAT SPEAKING ON CONDITION OF ANONYMITY