Putin Bids to End Russian Isolation With Syria Message to UN

Speaking ahead of his first formal meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in more than a year, Putin said in an interview with Charlie Rose that „we would welcome a common platform for collective action against the terrorists.“ There‘s no choice but to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the fight against Islamic State, he said.

Battered by sanctions and falling oil prices, Putin is using Syria to reassert Russia‘s diplomatic sway in the world as the country‘s civil war sends floods of refugees into western Europe. With no end in sight, Putin‘s argument that Assad must be part of a settlement -- a position he will likely repeat in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday -- is finding traction in European capitals.