Russian President Vladimir Putin is publicly welcoming President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. In a press conference on Thursday, Putin said that “The fact that the U.S. has decided to withdraw troops is right,” adding “we have dealt serious blows against ISIS in Syria.”
Putin’s comments almost exactly mirror the Russian playbook, as laid out by Cipher Brief Expert Steve Hall, a former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service and part of The Cipher Brief’s Moscow Station team.
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