Comment by yk

It is not the stupid who run Russia, in fact looking at Syria Putin seems to be the only one with a realistic goal in that war. The Russian interests are their access to the Mediterranean and following from that they want to aid their ally, the Assad regime, both clearly attainable military goals. Contrast that with the western engagement in Syria, ISIS was created in Iraq during the occupation, and now the West tries to put down by bombs what was created by bombs, a strategy that did not work for Israel in the last 50 years. So perhaps Russia is run by the cynical, but certainly not by the stupid.