BERLIN ¨C After the Islamic State attack on Paris, there are signs of a rapprochement between Western countries and President Vladimir Putin¡¯s Russia. Putin¡¯s peace offerings are more style than substance, however.
The West is making tentative steps toward uniting with Russia against Islamic State. French President Francois Hollande, who said a month ago that Putin ¡°is not our ally¡± in Syria, has promised to talk to U.S. President Barack Obama as well as to Putin ¡°to unite our forces.¡± Obama spoke one on one with Putin for more than 30 minutes at the G-20 summit in Istanbul, a change to the usual practice of mutual avoidance.
Western openness to a ¡°grand coalition¡± against Islamic State doesn¡¯t mean it will happen, though; there are still plenty of political differences to resolve and roles in the conflict to divide once that¡¯s done. Nor has Putin given ground on Ukraine. For about six weeks, the conflict zone was quiet; Putin had apparently leaned on the pro-Russian insurgents to cease fire as the Russian air force started bombing Syria. In November, however, the Ukrainian military usually reports several deaths a day. On Sunday, for example, three Ukrainian soldiers were reported killed.
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