Yury Barmin

The beginning of Putin’s trip to Saudi Arabia. Russian flags in town. But I remember being in Riyadh during Trump’s historic visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017 and this is nothing compared to the kind of celebration the US flag received back thenhttps://twitter.com/dimsmirnov175/status/1183679037794914304 …

*what role Iran will play

Tomorrow is the start of Putin's official visit to Saudi Arabia. One couldn't imagine a better context for this visit that an SDF-Damascus deal. Today got Russia one step closer to the recognition of the Assad government by Riyadh

Another important issue to consider is what role will play in the deployment of Syrian forces to the Northeast. If Suheil Al Hassan really takes charge, I imagine Iran will take a back seat.

What's important is on what conditions and to what degree the SDF are letting Damascus take over. There is a difference between the Daraa and the Aleppo models.The model of administration in the areas where Damascus takes over will impact what Kurds get under the new constitution

What Russia did here is giving Erdogan a taste of the Adana agreement, under which Turkey does have a right to cross-border operations. But now Russia will draw red lines for Erdogan in the Northeast. Going to be interesting to see how the Idlib-Northeast link will play out now

The SDF-Damascus deal is the only practical solution for Moscow to prevent a buffer that Erdogan was envisioning for northern Syria without directly confronting the Turks. Although I doubt that the SAA deployment will happen without the deployment of Russian forces

Reports that Russian man in Syria Suheil Al Hassan will lead forces that will enter Hassaka and Deir Ezzor provinces, which is significant too, since many people put into question Al Hassan's influence following the reorganization of the Tiger Forces into the 25th Division

Damascus and the SDF strike a deal at the Russian base in Hmeymim to let the SAA enter Kurdish-controlled area in the Northeast and deploy at the Syrian-Turkish border. The SAA is set to take control over Manbij, Kobane, Qamishli

Even Berel Lazar, the powerful Rabi Chief of Russia, who is known to be close to Putin was not able to intervene on Naama Issachar's behalf. Remains to be seen how this affair unfolds but this case demonstrates just how strained Russia-Israel relations really are

What infuriated people in Israel is the details about Issachar's detention in Moscow that her mother dubs as the Dreyfus Affair 2.0. Naama Issachar had no access to kosher food, while her trial was scheduled for the dates of the Yom Kippur celebration

The scandal got little attention in the Russian media, but the "prisoner swap" detail has really damaged Putin's reputation in Israel. What's notable is that the Putin-Netanyahu chemistry has no institutional trickle down effect either in Russia or in Israel.

And then things get weird. According to details in Israeli media, Putin and Netanyahu discussed this case in Sochi in September. Putin proposed to exchange Naam Issachar for Aleksey Burkov, a Russian hacker who is to be extradited from Israel to the US. Netanyahu turned it down

The woman's mother published an appeal to Putin in Russian in one of the Israeli papers, a pretty damning PR failure for Russia in Israelhttps://twitter.com/Romka_Gold/status/1183328642098749440?s=20 …

A lot of fishy details about this case. Israeli papers all came out with cover stories on Naam Issachar court case.https://twitter.com/Romka_Gold/status/1183331177844936706?s=20 …

A huge scandal brewing in Russian-Israeli relations. An Israeli-American woman was arrested in April during a connecting flight in Moscow with 9 grams of pot in her checked luggage. She was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison 3 days ago. A verdict that shocked lawyers

Plus Russia’s official position is that IS has been defeated in Syria. Now we discover that the threat is real, it’s real because a lot of those fighters held in camps come from Russia and Central Asia.