Putin orders start of Russian military pullout from Syria

Mission accomplished?

Clever move, very clever. I know that Putin is good at judo, but may be he is also good at chess?

Go in hard, achieve your goals and pull out. What a contrast to the approach by we know who.

Ouch. But gota agree with you here. But you guys should remember, how first, he snubbed the obama administration by telling them to step-aside, russia is taking control. Classy move, so smooth.

AsakazeMAR. 15, 2016 - 08:42AM JST Clever move, very clever. I know that Putin is good at judo, but may be he is also good at chess?

Actually, I think he sees the futility of Russia's continued involvement and thinks it's time to cut its losses. Russia doesn't have the money to waste on military adventures.

marcelitoMAR. 15, 2016 - 08:57AM JST Go in hard, achieve your goals and pull out. What a contrast to the approach by we know who.

What were those goals? To help ISIS and the Syrian military destroy entire cities and kill thousands of non-combatants? Assad will not last, should not last. Syria is on the cusp of becoming a failed state and as long as Assad stays in power it will.

Putin's main goal was to secure Russia's last remaining navy port on the Mediterranian - and h's succeeded at that, at least for the time being.

@Jeff Huffman

What were those goals? To help ISIS and the Syrian military destroy entire cities and kill thousands of non-combatants? Assad will not last, should not last.

I used to hold very similar views at the start of the war Jeff. I'm no fan of Assad or Putin but after examining the facts closely, the inescapable conclusion is that the rebels are far worse for the stability of Syria. They are just like the Mujahideen that blossomed into the Taliban. Sometimes in life you are left with only bad options (Assad dictatorship) or even worse options (The Islamist rebels). There are also Syrians in Europe who say that they will only consider returning once the rebels have been defeated, not all are anti-Assad.

-More than half of the rebel fighters in Syria who are opposing President Bashar al-Assad are sympathetic to Islamic State views, a leading thinktank has claimed-

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/20/most-syrian-rebels-sympathise-with-isis-says-thinktank

@Jeff Huffman

I think he sees the futility of Russia's continued involvement and thinks it's time to cut its losses

Futility? What are you talking about? The ISIS - Al Nusra - whatever the name is - onslaught has stopped, ISIS on retreat, many opposition groups negotiated peace agreements with the Syrian government. There is a possibility of more or less stable peace in Syria, and all that is achieved in six month. If you want to talk about futility then you should look at Afghanistan and Iraq after US invasions.

Russia doesn't have the money to waste on military adventures

From the point of cost effectiveness the Russian air campaign proved very effective and economical, they can carry on like that for many months. Russia does not have a national debt of 19 trillions.

Assad will not last, should not last.

Oh, god, when you will start to learn?? Do you think that removal of Assad from power will bring peace, prosperity and triumph of democracy to Syria? You toppled Saddam, and? You toppled Qaddafi, and? Assad is lesser evil then complete chaos and triumph of ISIS in next country.

I wonder what President Putin is doing? Turkey is about to invade Syria any day and this seems like an invitation for the Turks. Yet he must have a plan.

Russian planes hit lots of lots of civilian targets indiscriminately and now they are running away. Syria is still a murderous mess and will remain one.Just like Afghanistan in the 1980s. The only thing Putin cares about is Putin.

You reap what you sow.

It may take some time, but Russia's gonna regret getting involved with bombing everything in sight the way they did.

What's gonna happen to Palmyra? That's not done yet.

Word has it that the Russians are withdrawing to put pressure on Assad on the peace talks since Assad is drawing a hard line, too hard even for Moscow.

Russian planes hit lots of lots of civilian targets indiscriminately

Russia's gonna regret getting involved with bombing everything in sight

Facts, please. I mean solid facts, not baseless stories from UK-based hoaxer who calls himself Human observatory for human rights (aka Syrian Goebbels), and whose false statements are eagerly repeated by mainstream Western media.

And guys, where were your highly sensitive hearts when US / NATO bombers destroyed Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya? How many civilians were killed there?

One has to hand it to Putin - he handled the Russian deployment to Syria very effectively and efficiently. Go in hard, achieve your goals and pull out. What a contrast to the approach by we know who.

Yep. George W. Bush and his "no exit strategy" war in Iraq that set up this mess in the first place.

Jeff Huffman:

" What were those goals? "

To help the secular Assad regime to survive and prevent all of Syria from becoming another gigantic Libya style islamist hotbed.

" To help ISIS and the Syrian military destroy entire cities and kill thousands of non-combatants? "

No need for the talking points. All sides are killing non-combattants. Of all the players on the scene, the medieval ISIS headcutters are of course by far the worst -- but they have the support of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the US. So Putin recognized that and limited his involvement to securing the Eastern Alevite region for Assad. Unlike the American Potus, Putin is intelligent.

Word has it that the Russians are withdrawing to put pressure on Assad on the peace talks since Assad is drawing a hard line, too hard even for Moscow.

That makes sense to me. By the way Russia conducted its air campaign it is clear that the intent was to support the SAA and the Assad regime. All of the recent advances by the SAA have been under the umbrella of Russian air support but the job is far from finished. Assad doesn't really have much of a chance of winning this on the ground without Russian help and it seems that the withdrawal of Russian forces is intended to show him just that.

I can't help but feel that the Russian intervention has its detractors in Moscow and Putin may be feeling pressure back home to get it over with and get out.

Wow, so Russia has taken out ISIS? NICE!

Obama might have cut a deal probably over Ukraine which is falling apart day by day, or Obama has promised to end his economic oil war against him with Iran soon to be dumping oil on the market.

If turkey goes full-tard and decides to invade Syria, Putin's got Assads back.

Must have run out of cash.

But as Laguna said, Russia's naval base is safe. For now.

Chess player indeed Don Putin. Cheap base, at a few hundred thousand insignificant Syrian pawns. /s

Word has it that the Russians are withdrawing to put pressure on Assad on the peace talks since Assad is drawing a hard line, too hard even for Moscow.

That makes sense to me. By the way Russia conducted its air campaign it is clear that the intent was to support the SAA and the Assad regime. All of the recent advances by the SAA have been under the umbrella of Russian air support but the job is far from finished. Assad doesn't really have much of a chance of winning this on the ground without Russian help and it seems that the withdrawal of Russian forces is intended to show him just that.

It's been said many times that Russia's #1 priority has always been more about protecting their Mediterranean base in Syria and less about wiping out ISIS.

If ISIS is wiped out on the way to their goal, then that's fine too. But ISIS is mainly in east Syria, while the Russian base is in west Syria, so much of ISIS is not on the way to protecting their base. Now that their naval base is secure, there's less reason to stick around. ISIS has never been their top priority, though they may still aid Assad vs. ISIS, but only in limited fashion.

Guess they're leaving much of ISIS for NATO to take care of. Maybe smart of them to stay much out of the fray, but they won't get the honor of ISIS slayer.

Mustn't forget that Putin has probably used up most of Russia's obsolescent bombs and missiles that needed clearing out anyway.

The bombing west of Palmyra will look good to the UN, potentially pushing IS east, and saving some World Heritage sites in the process.

All good chess moves, as has been stated above.

@lostrune2

It's been said many times that Russia's #1 priority has always been more about protecting their Mediterranean base in Syria and less about wiping out ISIS.

It's been said many times that Russia's number 1 priority is preventing Syria from becoming just another failed state like Libya. Value of the base at Tartus is very overrated in the West, as the present campaign perfectly demonstrated if the Kremlin wants to get you then bombers and Caliber missiles will do the job perfectly, without a base in Syria.

but they won't get the honor of ISIS slayer

ISIS will not be "slayed" untill its massive support from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar is stopped. Will the US do something about it? And risk stability of NATO (hello, Erdogan, the Kurds Killer), the petrodollar system (hello Saudis, the most "democratic" country in the Middle East) and its huge military base at Qatar? I doubt it. But hey, the US can get the honor of ISIS slayer!!!!

It's been said many times that Russia's #1 priority has always been more about protecting their Mediterranean base in Syria and less about wiping out ISIS.

It's been said many times that Russia's number 1 priority is preventing Syria from becoming just another failed state like Libya.

May not be a failed state, but could be a divided state, as Syria needs a lot of their help in order to oust ISIS.

present campaign perfectly demonstrated if the Kremlin wants to get you then bombers and Caliber missiles will do the job perfectly, without a base in Syria.

Not perfectly; long-range missiles can only go so far (no pun intended). Need fighter jets to locate and immediately attack the mobile pick-up trucks that some people put so much emphasis on.

But hey, the US can get the honor of ISIS slayer!!!!

That honor seemed so important to many people when Russia first entered into the fray.

Not perfectly; long-range missiles can only go so far

May be not perfectly, but very well anyway. My point is that it's always good to have a base, but with their bombers and missiles Russians can live without the base in Syria, and it's not reasonable for them to get into the fray only for the sake of keeping Tartus, as some posters insinuate here.

That honor seemed so important to many people when Russia first entered into the fray

Russians honestly did their part, ISIS is seriously damaged by their air strikes, but the rest should be done by Americans (see my post above about Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar).

Putin went in to help just about the only other ally in that region, the other one being Iran which also put lots of resources in Syria. Putin " worked" to destroy the supply route for Syrian oil flowing northwards to Turkey , which was paying for weapons and money coming south to the IS. Putin also was wary of waging an open ended war, bearing in mind that Russia's economy is not good, what with the price of oil at rock bottom and the embargo by US and allies biting hard. Like a good contender, any war must be for a worthy consideration( usually), and ideally, must have objectives and once those objectives are attained, hostilities must cease and then a round table talk ( diplomacy) must take place for a solution. Putin, I'd think, has played his game plan well, limitations aside.