It is doubtful that a young Soviet intelligence officer (ambitious but quite dull, according to accounts) serving in East Germany thought that one day, as president of Russia, he would be able to recruit and operate the president of the world's largest power.
With each passing hour, news is developing at a dizzying pace. Two presidents, Russia's Vladimir Putin and America's Barack Obama, are sitting and thinking how to pre-empt the other with creative -- or, more correctly, destructive -- ideas.
While Obama turned to Congress and stuck to the liberal tradition of zigzagging and exuding a lack of leadership, Putin shuffled the deck and has emerged as more of a Democrat than the Democratic president of the U.S. With Putin defending the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of foreign countries, how can anyone imagine a cruise missile attack on a sovereign nation? Putin is presenting himself as the guardian of regional and world peace against U.S. war plans.
In international relations, there cannot be a vacuum. The Russians are agile and sophisticated, moving into areas left vacant by American vacillation and lack of leadership. All of Russia's moves indicate that, even if there is some behind-the-scenes coordination with the U.S. on Russia's Syria proposal, Putin is dictating the pace, forcing Obama's advisers to rewrite the American president's speeches on his way to the microphone.
Syria, although not necessarily Bashar Assad personally, is an important strategic Russian outpost in the eastern Mediterranean region. Russia is also strengthening its alliance with Iran by supplying it with anti-aircraft missiles and a nuclear reactor. And, of course, Russian has included Iran, which "maintains international law and morals," in talks that will give Assad more time to continue massacring his people (without gas) and Iran more time to build up its nuclear power.
While Obama is shuffling between news outlets and sweating between each interview, Putin's communications effort has been much more coordinated. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, an experienced diplomat and tough negotiator, does not say things that were not approved by Putin.
Several years ago, Obama announced the turning of a new page in U.S.-Russia relations. But Obama did not imagine that the contents of the new page would be dictated by Putin on the Russian president's terms.
Russia is now operating cylinders that it had shut down in the past. For the past two years, Russia has blocked all international moves to look into what is taking place in Syria.
The U.S. is trying to determine whether Russia's diplomatic proposal on Syria is serious. It is not known what American experts will conclude, but one thing is clear: Russian experts all agree that the Americans are not serious, until proved otherwise.
We may have to shift from the image of a Russian bear, heavy and clumsy, to one of a Russian fox, fast and cunning.
Dr. Rafi Vago teaches Eastern European history at Tel Aviv University.
