By Lucky Gold

The violence in Syria continues unabated and with it the international outrage and calls for President Bashar Assad to step down.  So far, Russia, Syria’s chief ally along with China, has stood by the Assad regime.

But that could be changing.

In a startlingly frank interview Monday on Amanpour, Dimitri Simes, the Russian-born President of the Center for the National Interest, a Washington-based think tank with close connections to the Russian government and Russian foreign policy experts, responded to this question from Christiane Amanpour:

“Do you mean if the U.S. decided to gather its own coalition and do for instance what it did in Kosovo, do an end run around Russia, that Russia would not resist?”

“Since you asked,” said Simes, “We recently heard a top level Russian delegation….It included Russian officials being there in an official capacity…and this question was raised, and the answer was very clear:  Russia would not welcome such an intervention, Russia would not approve such an intervention.”

Then, came the bombshell:  “It would not resist such an intervention, and this intervention would not become a major issue in the U.S.-Russian relationship.”

Responded Ms. Amanpour:  “Well, that’s a bit of a green light in my book.”
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