More like 1760s. Catherine the Great allied with Alawite sheiks in Syria in order to reduce Turkish footprint. It was generally a successful decades long operation bringing a great Turkish empire to its current state.
Well, Russia and the Rus have had agreements among monarchs and tribal chiefs since establishing civilization.
I defaulted to written, recorded, Internationally recognized Treaties with Internationally recognized Legal Governments that cannot be refuted by manipulating Leftists for obvious reasons.
Obama and his shills were operating entirely illegally simply by use of force while the Russian Federation were completely within International Law.
President Trump is the only American official that is actually making decisions that do comply with International Law.
This article is a misdirection to the effect of portraying Russians as lawbreakers operating at Obama's direction, when the lawbreakers are American Democrats operating at Obama's direction.
Pompeo says "look over there, it's a Russian" when he should be saying "Look there, it's an American Democrat Traitor".