Putin Tightens His Grip on Syria

Moscow ships advanced antimissile systems as talks unravel.

WSJ

The Obama Administration on Monday suspended the latest round of talks with Moscow over the Syrian civil war. Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has responded by suspending a plutonium-control agreement and dispatching a sophisticated anti-air system to Syria.

News of the new military shipment comes from three U.S. officials who spoke with Fox News, which reports that the SA-23 Gladiator arrived in the region over the weekend at Russia’s naval base at Tartus, on the Mediterranean. This is the first time Moscow has deployed the SA-23 to Syria.

The SA-23 system could impose significant restrictions on U.S. military action in Syria, since it can target cruise and ballistic missiles as well as aircraft. U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has proposed creating no-fly zones in Syria to deter the Bashar Assad regime’s murderous bombing runs, and her opponent, Donald Trump, has vowed to escalate the war on Islamic State. Mr. Putin has now dialed up the risk quotient associated with either course of action.

The bigger concern may be Russia’s growing military clout in the Middle East. The SA-23 deployment follows Russia’s transfer of a similar system to its clients in Tehran, its firing of cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea and its use of an Iranian air base earlier this year to launch sorties against Syrian opposition targets.

The Obama Administration and its media allies dismiss these developments as swaggering by a second-rate power, or as signs that Mr. Putin is being trapped in an Arab quagmire of his own making. But the Russian understands that he is creating military facts on the ground that increase the leverage of his allies in any future talks. The leaders in Israel, Turkey and the Gulf States will no doubt appreciate the shifting balance of power the deployment reflects. There is a war on. Russia’s side is winning, and the allies of America and the rest of Europe are losing.