Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama are pictured on a video screen installed in the press center of the G-20 Summit in Strelna near St. Petersburg, September 5, 2013.
Grigory Dukor / Courtesy Reuters
On Monday, September 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a diplomatic move that seemed to catch the entire international community, not just U.S. President Barack Obama and his team, by surprise. He seized the most dramatic moment possible -- the eve of what was to be a fateful vote in the U.S. Congress on Obama’s decision to launch a targeted strike against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad -- to propose that Syria surrender its chemical weapons to an international commission headed by the United Nations. Assad quickly agreed to the proposal, at least in principle.
By the evening of
Source URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2013-09-11/putin-scores-syria