WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the Kremlin’s press service said Putin and President Barack Obama reaffirmed their readiness to increase military cooperation in Syria and to resurrect UN-mediated negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition representatives.
"President Putin could help the United States find a face-saving way out of its disastrous interventions in Syria," Sydney University professor Tim Anderson told Sputnik.
Anderson, author of "The Dirty War on Syria," noted that the Russian president might be able to persuade the "mastermind of the war" in Washington to retreat from its ambitious in the region.
The United States often has trouble with normal international relations, which suggests the sovereign equality of nations, Anderson argued.
Moscow has long argued that the United States is violating international law by conducting operations within Syria’s sovereign borders without the permission of President Bashar Assad’s government.
Johns Hopkins University Professor and military historian Michael Vlahos told Sputnik that coordination vis-a-vis Syria combined with the repercussions of the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European Union, also known as Brexit, could defuse tensions between Moscow and Washington.
Russian cooperation with the United States, but also with its European partners, might change the Cold War-like mindset that has plagued US-Russian relations in recent years.
"I hope [cooperation] takes us away from the hitherto ironclad ‘us-vs-them’ conflict of yore," Vlahos suggested.
On Tuesday, US Department of Defense spokesperson Peter Cook said in a briefing that the United States is ready to cooperate with Russia in areas where the interests of the two countries intersect.
On July 4, Putin told Obama in a telegram that US-Russian cooperation could help solve the world’s problems and expressed confidence in restoring constructive dialogue.
