Vladimir Putin (C) shakes hands with former French P.M. Francois Fillon. REUTERS/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin took a victory lap on Thursday, having sapped Barack Obama’s push for Syrian intervention of its momentum just a few weeks after thumbing his nose at the United States by announcing he would harbor former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The strongman’s celebration reached the peak of its flamboyance when he admitted to be mulling a fourth term as president, which would make him the nation’s longest-serving ruler since Joseph Stalin.
Meanwhile, the White House’s all-hands-on-deck effort to salvage its aggressive posture on Syria saw Secretary of State John Kerry deliver a short briefing in Washington demanding U.N. Security Council action by “next week.” The diplomat showed irritation at the steadfast insistence by Russia and Syria on debating the “facts” of who used chemical weapons near Damascus on August 21 (it was the regime). “Let’s not spend time debating what we already know,” he pleaded.
The overlap between Kerry’s desperate appeal and Putin’s self-congratulation is not coincidental. What better time than now for the Russian autocrat — still dealing with the aftermath of a Moscow mayoral race that was closer than it should have been and an opposition that if, nothing else, has made itself electorally relevant in a handful of key races — to lock in more time at the helm? With the Russian economy sliding toward 2008 financial crisis levels of growth, there’s no telling how a fourth-term declaration might be received a year or even six months from now. Besides, the international community could still take some kind of action in the coming weeks in Syria, which would be tough even for Putin’s sophisticated media apparatus to spin as anything other than a repudiation of the Kremlin, Assad’s chief ally (along with Tehran). A moment where the machismo-fueled pol can truly revel in his own bravado is political gold that Putin had no intention of wasting.
