Summary Russian bombers have been supporting a Syrian government offensive on Aleppo.
RANCHO MIRAGE (AFP) - US President Barack Obama insisted Tuesday that Russia had made a strategic error in propping up Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, but said the conflict was not about him and Vladimir Putin.
Predicting a "quagmire" that drains Russia s assets, Obama said "this is not a contest between me and Putin."
"The real question we should be asking is what is it that Russia thinks it gains if it gets a country that s been completely destroyed as an ally, that it now has to perpetually spend billions of dollars to prop up?" Obama said.
"Putin may think that he s prepared to invest in a permanent occupation of Syria with Russian military. That s going to be pretty costly."
"About three-quarters of the country is still under control of folks other than Assad. That s not stopping anytime soon."
Obama said an internationally backed ceasefire due to take effect within a week, would be difficult to achieve, laying some of the blame at Putin s door.
"It s hard to do, because there s been a lot of bloodshed," said Obama.
"If Russia continues indiscriminate bombing of the sort that we ve been seeing, I think it s fair to say that you re not gonna see any take-up by the opposition."
Russian bombers have been supporting a Syrian government offensive on Aleppo, and Moscow is Assad s closest ally.
