Obama: Only Upside for Putin’s Syria Intervention Is ‘It’s Boosted His Poll Ratings’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

BARACK OBAMA: "Meanwhile, Mr. Putin comes into office at a time when the economy had been growing and they were trying to pivot to a more diversified economy. And as a consequence of these brilliant moves, their economy's contracting 4% this year. They are isolated in the world community subject to sanctions that are not just applied by us but by what used to be some of their closest trading partners. Their main allies in the middle East were Libya and Syria. Mr. Gadhafi and Mr. Assad. And those countries are falling apart. And he's now just had to send in troops and aircraft in order to prop up this regime at the risk of alienating the entire Sunni world. So what was the question again?

No, no, but I think it's really interesting to understand. Russia's not stronger as a consequence of what they've been doing. They get attention. The sanctions against Ukraine are still in place. And what I've consistently offered from a position of strength because the united States is not subject to sanctions, and we're not contracting 4% a year. What I've offered is a pathway whereby they can get back onto a path of growth and do right by their people. So Mr. Putin's actions have been successful only into far as it's boosted his poll ratings inside of Russia. Which may be why the beltway's so impressed, because that tends to be the measure of success. Of course it's easier to do when you've got a state-controlled media. But this is not a smart strategic move on Russia's part. And what Russia's now done is not only committed its own troops into a situation in which the overwhelming majority of the Syrian population sees it now as an enemy, but the Sunni population throughout the middle East is going to see it as a supporter, endorser of those barrel bombs landing on kids. At a time when Russia has a significant Muslim population inside of its own borders that it needs to worry about."