I would guess that Ivan wants his cake and to eat it too. They are probably finding that their cost of maintaining “influence” in the area is much worse than expected.
Time will tell.
Well, yes, now that someone is taking them seriously. And cutting off their sources of support (Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Obama State Department...)
Look at the players with the most to lose. It is the Assad regime and the Kurds. They live in Syria, have the most political unity, military strength, and willpower.......and they live there, always have and always will.
The FSA and all the other minor players are joining and rejoining whichever side suits them today.
Russia isn’t going anywhere, they have a permanent air and naval base, that’s really all they want. They’ve already achieved their goals of keeping Assad in power, that’s not going to change.
Think about it, look at the restrained effort we are making against ISIS. Assad and the Russians have little to fear from us. The Russians will support the marxist element of the Kurds, even if they lose influence with the Turks.
Rojava will be a reality, covering every part of the former Syria east of the Euphrates River. Yes, I said the former Syria. It will be partitioned by common agreement between the US, Russia and the Kurds.
Iran is the only outside influence that is expanding. But Russia and Assad will keep them in line to a major degree. Iran will come to agreement with the Kurds about the natural gas pipelines they want to build to the Lebanese coast.
Syria/Kurd article
“The U.S. interest in Syria is not at all strategic”
He is missing it. Israel’s interest is a strategic issue as are Jordan, SA and Egypt.