The sudden Russian pullout from Syria indicates that Moscow wanted to punish Europe for its role in the Ukraine crisis. Russia knew well that changing the balance of power on the ground would force people to leave their homes in search for safer places and Europe would be their number one choice.
In my opinion, it was a well thought-out intervention and to a great extent Russia has achieved its objective. Those analysts who are claiming that Russia failed to achieve its goal in Syria should try to assess the Russian decision(s) from this perspective.
I am sure they will reach the same conclusion. It was a nasty thing to do. Moscow completely ignored the human cost of its intervention in Syria. Now Europe is in trouble because of the migrant crisis and it will take some time to recover from this problem. — Junaid Alam, Dammam
Russian pullout
