It is not surprising that the Obama-Putin contretemps was widely reported as a duel. The two Presidents do not suffer each other gladly, and it was impossible to parse all the overlapping and coded agendas in their speeches. And yet, for all their sparring, there was an undercurrent of common cause in their pronouncements on Syria. Putin was plainly seeking to reassert Russia’s position as a power broker in the Middle East, and Obama made no move to block him.
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