Can Russia let Assad go?

Can Russia let Assad go?

At Trump accusation of Assad using gas on own people & Russia covering up for them, Putin’s reply is, “This reminds me very much of the events of 2003, when U.S. representatives in the Security Council showed alleged chemical weapons discovered in Iraq”, “The exact same thing is happening now”.

In Wednesday’s meeting between Tillerson & Lavrov, Tillerson said Russian interference in the presidential election was a settled fact. In response, Lavrov described a list of American efforts to achieve “regime change” around the world, from Serbia to Iraq to Libya. He described them all as failures — warning against any efforts to achieve the same end in Syria.

The question is, if tensions between the two Nuclear Powers has escalated to such an extent, why does Russia not compromise on Assad & defuse the tensions?

There is no settled definition of what a ‘Superpower’ is, but some of its necessary features are ‘it’s being able to enforce a ruling upon a global issue & the ability to create global detest against rulers it dislikes and demonizes’

And in geopolitical history it has been moments like these that have defined the rise & decline of superpowers, e.g. the symbolic breaking of the Berlin Wall marked the Russia’s dethronement form superpower status.

Similarly at this time when US is already losing the Afghanistan & Iraq fronts & US + EU economy is on the decline, a symbolic event like Assad’s staying or going can become the signal of US decline & Russian rise – an opportunity Russia would never let go!

So the negative & ultra-hegemonic policies of the US in the last 2decades have proven utterly unsuccessful – instead of making regional powers more timid towards the US, they have given them the realization that they can do better than the US.

And letting go of Assad at this time would mean letting go of all the prestige Russia & friend China have earned in the last 2decades!