US Sidelined? Russia, France Form Their Own Anti-ISIL Alliance in Syria

“The savage terrorist acts on Paris almost immediately resulted in a French-Russian military alliance against the Islamic State in Syria, with French President Hollande and most of Europe dramatically breaking with the Obama Administration’s nearly two-year-old policy of isolating Putin’s Russia over the Ukrainian crisis,” Professor Stephen Cohen, Contributing Editor to The Nation magazine and Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies & Politics at NYU and Princeton, wrote in his article.

After the terrorist attacks in the country, Paris demonstrates “the growing decline of Washington’s leadership and influence even with its own Western alliance,” the expert says.

Meanwhile, President Hollande’s approval rating jumped to its highest since January, the first public poll since the Paris terrorist attacks showed.

About 33 percent of voters approve of Hollande’s performance, up from 25 percent in October, Bloomberg quotes BVA Opinion as saying in a monthly poll.

The increase gives Hollande his best rating in this poll since in the days after the attacks in January on the French weekly Charlie Hebdo.

Professor Cohen also noted that within Europe, “the leadership in regard to Russia may now shift to Hollande from German Chancellor Merkel, whose own leadership is in growing crisis due to her policies toward Greece, Ukraine and the Middle Eastern refugees flooding the European continent.”

Europe now seems to accept President Putin’s longstanding argument that “reversing the advances of the Islamic State requires strengthening the Syrian state and its army as “boots on the ground,” and thus Syrian President Assad himself, not removing Assad as the Obama administration has insisted for almost two years.”

At the same time, Professor Cohen notes that Europe’s support for the US-backed regime in Kiev “continues to wane”, describing the Poroshenko administration as “yet another government in deepening crisis" and Ukraine as the chief obstacle to EU-Russia relations.