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Why Putin Is Winning in Syria

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Posted: December 29th, 2016

By Rob Dannenberg

Rob Dannenberg served as chief of operations for CIA's Counterterrorism Center, chief of the Central Eurasia Division and chief of the Information Operations Center before retiring from the Agency.  He served as managing director and head of the Office of Global Security for Goldman Sachs, and as director of International Security Affairs at BP.  He is now an independent consultant on geopolitical and security risk.

After the fall of Aleppo, few would deny the influence that Russian President Vladimir Putin now wields in Syria and the Middle East – but this was not always the case. This February 18 article from the Former Head of Security at Goldman Sachs, Rob Dannenberg, offers a glimpse into the Russian mindset concerning Middle Eastern affairs, and a prescient argument for why Western commentators should not underestimate the Kremlin.

Recent press headlines about Syrian peace talks and a possible ceasefire reflect naivete and false hopes that come from thinking the world is the way we wish it to be and not the way it really is.  Russian President Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical gambit in Syria is poorly understood and generally underestimated in the West.  

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