March 24, 2014 | Quote

Why Putin Is Able To Screw With The US At Every Turn

Russian President Vladimir Putin never had any intentions of diplomacy with regard to Crimea, despite a last-ditch full-court press by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in London last week.

That's how a story this week in The Wall Street Journal detailed it. When Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for about six hours last Friday, Lavrov stepped away from the discussions to call Putin. When the Russian president refused to take his diplomat's call, it became clear that Lavrov was not in London to cut a deal — he was presenting the illusion of diplomacy.

This is one way the U.S. has played into the hands of Russia on key foreign policy issues over the past few months. With respect to the crisis in Ukraine, the Obama administration has struggled to respond on the fly and calibrate a strategy that sends a clear message to Russia while keeping in mind the necessity to keep Putin as a diplomatic partner.

“If you’re Putin and you think you’re going to be a target of sanctions, the most obvious leverage is in the Iranian file, where Russian cooperation is so important,” Mark Dubowitz, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The New York Times.

Read the full article here.

Issues:

Iran Russia Syria