Moscow has been more effective in one week of airstrikes than the US and its allies have been in more than year, raising questions about whether or not Washington ever really wanted to eliminate the terrorist group in the first place.
Russia’s successes have thus embarrassed the West and prompted an international media offensive against it. They’ve also placed President Obama in political hot water, with his domestic critics alleging that his discombobulated policy towards Syria essentially handed the entire Mideast to Moscow.
Dmitry Polikanov, Vice-President of the PIR-Center, an independent think-tank (studio guest), Vladimir Kozin, Chief Adviser and the Head of the Group of Advisers to the Director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies and Rod Thornton, Senior Lecturer at Defense Studies Department (King’s College London) shared their perspective.