Whenever President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have met over the past few years, the optics of the photos spoke volumes. Cringeworthy. An exercise in mutual disdain. It was worse than those uber awkward photos of Obama with the imperious Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose American political comfort zone is the Republican Party.
The most recent Obama-Putin photo op–ahead of the annual G-20 Summit in Turkey–had a notably different look. The two leaders weren’t exchanging grimaces over perfunctory handshakes. They were seated and leaning in–with translators by their sides–in serious conversation.
The aftermath of the Parisian mass murders had underscored a stark reality: Obama and Putin, although the oddest of couples, are both on the same side. The only one that matters. The side that confronts the existential threat of jihadist mass-murderers. It is why Russia asked the FBI to help analyze forensic evidence from that downed Russian airliner. Such a request for help was seen as unusual.
This is no longer about Crimea, that new Russian submarine-launched nuclear torpedo or U.S. support for NATO and former Soviet Bloc countries. This is about the ramifications of Russian lives lost over Sinai, the most recent ISIS slaughter of innocents in Paris and the chilling threat of more horrifics ahead for “infidels” and “apostates.” And it’s, frankly, about Russian leverage in Syria.
Obama and Putin need each other, even if they don’t like each other.