Putin’s Help in Islamic State Fight Seen Likely to Come With Strings Attached

Western sanctions and international outrage over the invasion of Ukraine were supposed to leave Russian President Vladimir Putin isolated and weakened on the world stage, but that was before the surge of international attacks by the Islamic State found President Obama and other Western leaders suddenly in need of Moscow’s help.

The unexpected alignment of Russian and French forces against the Islamic State in response to the Paris attacks and the bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt suggests Russia under Mr. Putin may even be eager to take a far more active and visible role in the struggling U.S.-led campaign to contain the extremists.

But the Obama administration should be wary, according to analysts, that serious cooperation from Moscow is likely to come with major strings attached, as Mr. Putin attempts to exploit his newfound status as leverage to pressure Washington and the European Union into easing Ukraine-related sanctions leveled against him last year.

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“Is Russia going to want to extricate some sort of sanctions concession from the West for actually targeting the Islamic State, which the Russian military has not really done before this week?” asked Boris Zilberman at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. “It’s certainly a plausible scenario.”

“I think the situation may be more complicated for us than it is for the Russians,” said Mr. Zilberman. “They’re certainly not separating these things as much as we are, and since they’re the ones in the center of all this now, how are we going to react if they end up trying to link” a Syria campaign with concessions on Ukraine?

“Are we going to tell the Russians these are separate issues?”

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