Will Russia Abandon Syrian President Assad?

Josh Rogin, Bloomberg: No One But U.S. Believes Russia Will Abandon Assad

The Obama administration began a new diplomatic process Friday to solve the Syria crisis -- a gambit that depends on Russia to eventually push Syrian President Bashar al Assad to step down. But not even America’s allies think Russia will reverse its support for the dictator.

Representatives of all of the countries supporting forces in Syria's civil war met for nine hours in Vienna, after which top U.S. officials said that the new talks had made some progress in identifying shared goals, such as maintaining Syria’s territorial integrity and ending the violence. Diplomats from the U.S., Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and several other countries agreed to meet again within two weeks. There was no agreement on the key issue, whether Assad would be compelled to leave power as part of a transition to a new Syrian government.

WNU Editor: Will Russia abandon Assad .... no. But this post actually reveals more on what is U.S. thinking (and psychology) ... not Russian. To U.S. officials .... it appears that to them it is easy to abandon someone, while I know in Russia .... it is not. In fact .... like U.S. military forces not abandoning their fellow soldiers on the battlefield .... politically speaking .... that is also the mindset in Moscow (at least so far).