aims to remove a source of terrorist attacks on their own soil and to combat a radical and strict form of Islam that is gaining power over more moderate Muslim movements.
An end to the conflict and push back of Daesh could also remove the reasons for hundreds of thousands of people to flee the country and go to Western Europe as migrants. The sheer numbers of migrants are testing Europe’s humanitarian solidarity and are boosting outspoken populist politicians that want to shut the borders.
Russia’s open role in Syria is not only disrupting the western’ allies policy of fighting IS while supporting moderate Syrian rebels who want to remove al-Assad, it also forces them to deal with Russia and Putin.
But officially the ties are cold because of the standoff around Ukraine since the annexation of the Crimea and the self-declared separation in east Ukraine.
Putin was in Paris last Friday for talks with French president Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukraine president Petro Porochenko.
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