John wrote:
> The likely possibility that an ISIS-linked bomb brought down
> Russia's Metrojet Flight 9268 is going to throw Russia's Syria
> strategy into chaos, because of the justified perception Sunni
> jihadists targeted a Russian plane in revenge for Russia's
> military intervention in Syria.
vincecate wrote:
> I would expect this to throw Russia's Syria efforts into
> overdrive. Instead of just 15 planes bombing ISIS with 4 flights
> each every day, something much more. Maybe 50 planes. Obama
> might back off from something like this but Putin is more the type
> to attack much harder.
> Maybe he works out a deal where Egypt, Israel, and Russia clean up
> the Sinai.
I guess this is possible, but it has a huge downside -- inflaming
the Northern Caucasus provinces, provoking a new war in Russia
like the two Chechen wars of the 1990s - which would be VERY
unpopular in Russia.
Also, it's not clear how Russia would wipe out ISIS even if Putin
wanted to. He'd have to send Russian ground troops into Syria - which
would be VERY, VERY unpopular in Russia.
As for cleaning up the Sinai, there's no way that Egypt is going to
allow Russian or Israeli warplanes to bomb onto Egyptian soil.