Putin Is The New Kingmaker In The Middle East, As Global Balances Shift

The power politics that has intensified with the Syrian crisis has already shown which global player will emerge as the winner: Russia. With the flip-floppy policies of Obama and the lack of any U.S. strategy of the Trump Administration vis a vis the volatile region, Russian leader Putin has been playing his cards smartly by filling the void. This has involved not only reintroducing the long-lost presence of his country since the end of the Cold War, but also going for a full-scale expansion.

Putin’s successes in the region were not just military but also diplomatic. The former KGB boss used all the cunningness he had learned while head of the Soviet secret police in East Germany to further his agenda in the region. Today, Putin has made great diplomatic inroads in the Middle East, convincing a number of countries to sign lucrative deals and supply them with Russian-made weaponry.

Putin read into the game and assaulted its weaknesses. He realized that the pressure on Assad demanded a long-term endurance and diplomatic patience. At the end, the Russian determination not to let go of a leadership that has traditionally provided a presence for the Russian military on its soil proved to be a rock solid stand. By keeping Assad regime intact, Putin has secured a power base in the Eastern Mediterranean, and as Claude Salhani argues here, he has become a kingmaker.

Putin can cash the chips he has won from the defeat of ISIS to become the ultimate kingmaker in the region while defying the multitude of Western nations that continue to call for the removal of the Syrian president. Putin today is no longer worried about NATO, as Russia was during the Cold War. 

If these observations are true, the world is set for a historic change in global power balances, sooner than imagined.