Both President Trump’s harsh rhetoric (his first direct criticism of the Russian President Putin for supporting Assad) and the French President Macron’s red line statement make it likely that there will be a military response.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed that the assassination of Karlov was motivated to diminish Turkey-Russia relations.
ecep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin, and Hassan Rouhani, the presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran, met in Ankara on April 4 and they, once again, pledged to work together to conclude the everlasting war in Syria.
A crisis between Turkey and Russia was avoided as Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that he knew who was behind the incidents and that Turkey was not involved.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Russian President Putin and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani agreed on gathering a congress of Syrian groups to advance a political solution for Syria during a meeting held in Russia's Sochi on last Wednesday, November 22.
Thus, while on one hand Russia is using the Turkish threat against the YPG for political and military gains, the Putin administration is also attempting to use the YPG towards Turkey in order to receive concessions from Ankara.
As part of this process, all actors have to make various sacrifices, as was displayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s emphasis on President Erdoğan’s leadership during his latest visit to Turkey.
The crisis which emerged with the downing of the Russian SU-24 aircraft by the Turkish Armed Forces in November 2015 ended with Erdoğan and Putin’s meeting in Sochi in May 2016.
Russia’s extreme and disproportionate force against the Chechen fighters, especially under the leadership of Vladimir Putin during and after the Second Chechen War, caused extreme radicalization of armed groups in these parts of the country.
Therefore, although they are disturbed by Trump's negative views on NATO and the speculations regarding Trump-Putin relations, it can be argued that the European allies will acquiesce to the pressure of the U.
During the Putin-Erdogan meeting held at the Kremlin on March 10, 2017, the leaders also discussed the procurement of Almaz-Antey S-400 “Triumf” which is a powerful long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system.
French journalist Nicolas Henin, the author of the book La France Russe, in a recent TV interview, explained that “Putin’s Russia supports populist, isolationist and sovereignist movements” and added that “even though Macron doesn’t have a political discourse which is against Russia, Fillon’s and Le Pen’s political discourses are more attractive for Russia.