Obama lost decisively to Putin on all fronts
The outgoing US president lost the confrontation with the Russian leader, writes the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.
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The publication notes that between the leaders of the two countries “a very personal duel has been going on at the highest level for a long time.”
“As for the highly publicized personal duel between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, the battle is practically over,” the newspaper concludes.
“The first battle in the war between Putin and Obama took place in Syria in 2013, after President Bashar al-Assad crossed Obama’s “red line” by using chemical weapons against the population of his own country. Putin was quick to intervene and saved Assad from American bombs, forcing Syria to liquidate its stockpiles of chemical weapons. The agreement was a diplomatic triumph for Putin and a lifeline for Obama, who did not want to get deeper into the conflict in Syria by bombing Assad. It is possible that he later regretted it. 1:0 in favor of Putin.
Over time, the center of gravity in the confrontation between the United States and Russia has shifted to Ukraine, where Putin annexed Crimea and supported pro-Russian rebels in the east of the country. In the summer of 2014, the United States and the EU imposed sanctions against Russia, and Russia responded with its own counter-sanctions, which harmed the EU to the same extent. Putin established control over Crimea and the rebellion in Eastern Ukraine - and thus began to “steer” in the game about the future of Ukraine. Low oil prices are still much worse for the poor state of the Russian economy than sanctions. 2:0 in favor of Putin.
Last September, Russia took part in military operations in Syria on Assad’s side. This turned the tide of the war; in early December, Assad established control over Aleppo, which was a real triumph. 3:0 in favor of Putin. He has already taken revenge for Obama's 2013 description of Putin as a "school bully," saying he reminded him of "a boy who was bored in class in Kamchatka." Obama's remark infuriated Putin.
On Thursday it became clear that Russia had succeeded in making Turkey a partner in a truce aimed at achieving a political solution in Syria. Together with Iran, the two countries are engaged in diplomacy that has completely sidelined the United States in Syria. Putin scored a diplomatic supergoal by humiliating Obama by having Turkey, a NATO member, choose Russia as a partner in what, for the first time, looks like a realistic — which does not necessarily mean fair — attempt at peace. 4:0 in favor of Putin.
However, Putin's greatest triumph is the election of Donald Trump as the next US president. We may never know whether Putin actually influenced the results of the US election. But the Democrats’ attempt to use the “Putin card” in the American election campaign - by sticking Trump to Putin - was not successful. And Putin's favorite became president. 5:0 in favor of Putin.
And on Friday, Putin pulled off a stunning feint against Obama: he did not expel American diplomats in response to Obama’s expulsion of Russian diplomats, but instead invited the children of American diplomats to a Christmas tree in the Kremlin. Putin rejected Obama's declaration of war, calling it low-level "kitchen diplomacy." Trump was quick to respond—on Twitter, of course—by declaring that he always knew Putin was smart. So Obama was outwitted by both Putin and Trump, and Putin again elegantly directed the goal into the goal. 6:0 in Putin’s favor,” Dagbladet sums up.
Obama lost to Putin in a landslide on all fronts.