Russian ships launched missiles at targets in Syria today, as Syrian ground forces initiated their first major ground offensive since Moscow started conducting airstrikes a week ago.
Today’s ground offensive is in the north, not an area where ISIS is in control. But the al-Qaida group the Nusra Front is active in this area.
Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson speaks with Russian politics expert Richard Sakwa about what President Vladimir Putin is trying to do in Syria.
Guest
- Richard Sakwa, professor of Russian and European Studies at the University of Kent and author of “Putin and the Oligarchs: The Khordorkovsky-Yukos Affair,” and the recent “Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands.”
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