Russia's President Vladimir Putin spent much of this week's G8 summit in the UK's Northern Ireland looking as if he wished he were not there. The body language of the diminutive but pugnacious Russian leader spoke volumes about the degree of political isolation in which he found himself over the slavish military and diplomatic support Moscow continues to give the Assad regime in Syria. There was some speculation that the Kremlin might have given serious thought to boycotting the talks altogether, knowing the pressure that the other G8 members led by President Barack Obama would be exerting in the quest for a change in Moscow's Syrian policy. Yet from Putin's point of view, it was extremely important that he was there. The sullen poses as he stood with the other leaders were carefully calculated and they were directed almost entirely at his audience back home. Putin wanted to demonstrate to the Russian people the degree of displeasure he feels for what he would characterize as Western interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country. Leave aside for a moment the terrible realities behind the tragedy that continues to unfold in Syria. Politics is never always about reality and Russian politics has had a long-standing capacity to soar above truth and reason. Moscow's support for Syria and the Assad regime is nothing to do with Syria. It is, in fact, all about Russia. Russia not only lost the Cold War but its transition to a free market economy was botched and chaotic. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, 14 different republics broke away from Russia, robbing Moscow of up to 40 percent of the GDP of the old USSR. The economic dislocation was compounded by the 2000 loss of the nuclear submarine Kursk with all hands. Russians felt humiliated and angry. It has been Putin's strongman image, his impatience with opposition, his aggressive assault on Chechen separatists and his tough talk to the international community that has bolstered the image Russians have of themselves and has restored their pride and their feeling that they once again have superpower status. Seen in this light, Russia's involvement in Syria is a replay of Cold War politics, where Washington and Moscow fought out their differences by proxy in lands far away from their own people. Most ordinary Russians don't care a fig about Syria – probably could not even point to it on a map. However, they do care about their country's prestige and many of them are heartened by, as they see it, Putin's assertion of Russian power and influence by arming Assad at a time when Western powers, albeit still half-heartedly, are finally put their logistical as well as their diplomatic weight behind the Syrian opposition and the Free Syria Army. Thus Putin's support for Assad is both cynical and unforgivable. He is prepared to sacrifice the lives of any number of Syrians simply so he can snub his nose at Washington, and allow his people to puff themselves up with pride at the demonstration of Moscow's power to counter Western, or particularly US, policy. Thus Putin met his fellow G8 leaders this week with no intention of acceding to any of their perfectly reasonable demands to advance a peaceful settlement. Rather he went with one overarching ambition, which was to provide an angry pout for the cameras back home.
