Russian-French Alliance Is Another Victory for Putin

The rapid development of an alliance between Russia and France to seek revenge for ISIS killing 224 Russians in a plane explosion near Sharm el Sheikh and murdering 132 Frenchmen in Paris represents yet another victory for Vladimir Putin, who has been on a winning streak that has brought Russia back as a major power. The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 saw the loss of 50 percent of its population, the Ukrainian bread basket, over two million square miles, part of its nuclear arsenal (to Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan) and loss of 25-30 million Russians now "abroad." It lost its Eastern European empire won during World War II in 1988. But with help from a sharp rise in oil prices, Putin oversaw the doubling of Russian GNP. He revived the Russian Orthodox Church, built good relations with the Jewish community and fought homegrown terrorism. He has gained popular support by taking back significant areas, such as Crimea and parts of Left Bank Ukraine, lost in the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Aided by the American semi-withdrawal from the Middle East and unwillingness to get involved on the ground, Putin has revived Russia's role as a major power in the region. On one hand, Russia has joined the Iran-Hezbollah-Syria-Iraq boxis to preserve its only reliable partner, Bashar Assad's Syria. But, Russia has also regained much of the ground lost with Sunni Arab states since it stopped supplying arms to the anti-Israel bloc in the 1970s. With the United States leaning towards Iran, Putin is selling over two billion dollars of arms to Egypt, building two nuclear reactors for Jordan and talking of selling 24-36 nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia. By the end of the year, six Sunni Arab leaders -- including the King of Saudi Arabia and leader of the United Arab Emirates -- will have visited Moscow. Aligning with France would be another major step forward for Russia, building on a long history of friendship between Moscow and Paris. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century Russian aristocrats often spoke French before they could speak Russian. In the 1890s French companies provided the majority of the capital investment for early industrialization. In 1914 during World War I, the French waited for the Russian "steamroller" to stop the German advance into France. It arrived, but only in 1945. In World War II the French were informally aligned with Russia in 1944 and 1945. After the war the Moscow-supported Communist Party was a leading force in French politics for several decades. In 2010 Russia defeated Saudi Arabia and Canada in a tender to purchase a plot of land near the Eiffel Tower. Too, the French under Charles de Gaulle and for 43 years refused to be a full member of anti-Soviet NATO. Even last year France agreed to sell warships to Russia until events forced them to cancel it. With President Obama unwilling to seriously engage ISIS militarily, the leadership of the mission will likely go to Russia. As a former superpower that spends 80 billion dollars a year on the military, it has the capability, together with its allies, to seriously threaten and even destroy ISIS. This would play well at home where Russians still remember the Islamic radicals who carried out major terrorist acts against Russia. Too, there are 7,500 members of ISIS allegedly from Russia. Working closely with France and other EU members, Iran, Iraq and Syria, has the potential to put Russia back where it feels it belongs. It even could align with Israel, which has the strongest Middle East military. Israel, would not mind the destruction of an enemy that has sworn to destroy it. With the United States pulling up the rear, the Russians can also achieve yet another goal: to keep a pro-Russian, post-Assad regime in power in Syria. With Lavrov, Putin has again shown his ability to maneuver and do what Russians yearn for -- to put Russia back as a great power in the world.