Vladimir Putin’s announcement took many with close links to the military hierarchy by surprise and some observers question if it’s even real
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu at the Kremlin in Moscow on Monday. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP/Getty ImagesFive and a half months, 9,000 fighter jet sorties, a reprieve for Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the downing of a Russian passenger jet over Egypt and the end forever of the burgeoning bromance between the Turkish and Russian presidents: thus goes the summary of Russia’s intervention in Syria, which has irrevocably changed the contours of the five-year-old conflict and its surrounding geopolitics.
“I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defence Ministry to be generally accomplished,” Vladimir Putin announced matter-of-factly on Monday evening, announcing the imminent withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria. The vaguely stated objective of “fighting terrorism”, so conducive to mission creep and unfinishable wars, has clearly not been accomplished. Isis, after all, is still very much there.