Analysis of the Russian advance military pullout from Syria

Vladimir Putin has just ordered the withdrawal of the Russian forces in Syria:

The main question which should be asked is whether this is right: have the Russians accomplished their goal or not? To answer this inquiry, we have to take a look at what the underlying Russian objectives were. I did that in my article “Week Thirteen of the Russian Intervention in Syria: debunking the lies” where I composed: (emphasis added)

The key issue here is what criteria to use to measure “success”. And that, in turns, begs the question of what the Russians had hoped to achieve with their intervention in the first place. It turns out that Putin clearly and officially spelled out what the purpose of the Russian intervention was. On October 11^th, he declared the following in an interview with Vladimir Soloviev on the TV channel Russia 1:

Our objective is to stabilize the legitimate authority and create conditions for a political compromise

That’s it. He did not say that Russia would single-handedly change the course of the war, much less so win the war. And while some saw the Russian intervention as a total “game changer” which would mark the end of Daesh, I never believed that. Here is what I wrote exactly one day before Putin make the statement above:

Today’s declaration at last puts to rest the “most expected standoff” and other “game changer” theories.  At least the saker trust so :- )

A partition of Syria?

Future Russian options and operations?

Evaluation