Stephen Lendman

Putin deserves high praise for wanting conflicts in Syria and Ukraine resolved diplomatically, peace and stability restored, an agenda polar opposite Washington’s.

At the June 16 - 18 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), he highlighted the threat.

Hostile unilateralism doesn’t work, he explained. It’s dangerous, “inevitable” negative “consequences” following, something “nobody wishes.“Russia has encountered complete disregard for its stance, including with missile defense and NATO expansion.” Western-supported wars and color revolution produce unacceptable chaos, he stressed.

He vowed support to preserve Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity various times before. Addressing Washington, he said “Russia is not interested in anyone else telling it what to do.”

Restoring mutual EU/Russian trust is essential, he explained, free from undermining US policy.

Days earlier, John Kerry blustered about “Russia need(ing) to understand that (US) patience…is very limited with whether or not Assad is going to be held accountable” for ceasefire violations.

They’re committed virtually entirely by US-supported terrorist groups. Russia’s General Staff head Valery Gerasimov responded appropriately, saying:

“If anyone’s patience on Syria is waning, it is our patience, not the United States. We are in full compliance with our obligations to maintain ceasefire and ensure national reconciliation in Syria.”

“In the meantime, the American side always has problems with (so-called opposition elements) under its control,” death squad terrorist groups mischaracterized as moderates.

“Whenever we hear claims from the Pentagon (about our not using) communication lines…professionally, it gets clear that they are either ignorant of the existing channels of interaction or get wrong information.”

America is “still undecided whether there are opposition forces and where there are ‘turncoats’ from international terrorist organizations.”

“As a result, terrorists in Syria actively regain strength and tensions soar again. It cannot continue this way indefinitely.”

“In their opinion, missile bombardments of Syrian government troops and communities by militants should be considered by all as ‘insignificant violations’ of the ceasefire.”

“But any proportionate responses to the militants by the Syrian military are at once declared as disproportionate strikes on the opposition.”

Moscow wants regional peace and stability restored. Washington wants endless war, Assad ousted, Syrian sovereignty destroyed, the country partitioned, and Iran isolated ahead of belligerently challenging its independence the same way.

Do comments by Putin and Gerasimov indicate Russia’s patience wearing thin, a policy shift on Syria coming, unwilling any longer to accept Washington’s belligerent agenda?

Syria’s fate and the region’s depend on what it intends doing.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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