Those who were surprised by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calm demeanor after a Russian reconnaissance plane was shot down by Syrian forces last week are now seeing the missing factors in the originally confusing equation. When the incident occurred, sparked by an Israeli air raid on arms shipments bound for its enemies and an attempt by Syrian military to shoot down an Israeli jet fighter, Putin opined that the incident was the result of a “tragic chain of events.” Now, days later, that “tragic chain of events” was determined by Putin’s minions to have been caused by Israeli “lack of professionalism or criminal negligence,” according to a Russian defense ministry spokesman. But more troubling for Israel is the announcement that Moscow will provide its S-300 missile defense system to Syria, expecting to deploy in the Damascus area within two weeks – a move that unquestionably hinders Israel’s ability to maneuver in Syrian skies and to launch missions against weapons build-ups in Syria en route to Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon or for Iranian fighters based in Syria. In 2013, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was able to convince Putin to forego the sale of S-300s in what amounted to a major diplomatic achievement. The hurried deployment announced by the defense ministry is, according to some experts, “dangerous.”
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