Russia's Syria problem

NY Times:

U.S. Attack on Syria Cements Kremlin’s Embrace of Assad


The solidarity with Damascus is likely to cause problems for President Vladimir V. Putin and Russia in the long run, political analysts say.
Russia is in the untenable position of having to defend the use of WMD after it struck a deal that was supposed to get rid of Syria's WMD.  Ambassador Nikki Haley presented this dilemma in stark terms at the UN.  She essentially said the Russians either lied are were incompetent in their commitment to removing Assad's WMD.

The Russians don;t seem to have an answer to that so they are for now pretending the sarin gas attack did not happen or if it did it was the fault of those opposing Assad.  That argument is not going to be persuasive since the evidence is pretty overwhelming and the US believes there is more Sarin at the base it attacked.

Putin appears to have gotten himself in a pickle and is responding with bluster and saber rattling.  His problem is that no one believes his story about the WMD and the military threat seem to confirm Assad's guilt to most people.

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