Trusting Putin?

It is not possible to entirely trust Putin anymore than it was possible to entirely trust Stalin during the 2nd World War. However, it is also important to note that Russia lost 20 million mostly civilians to the Nazis in breaking the back of Hitler and the U.S. only lost around 900,000 people mostly civilians during World War II in comparison.

So, World War II had an entirely different effect on the Soviet Russians than it did on Americans.

So, the Russian attitude about all this likely will be much more cynical than the U.S. or NATO attitude. So, getting in Sync is sort of going to be limited in trying to eliminate ISIS.

IN fact, because Assad has bribed ISIS by giving them oil wells which Assad now buys oil from and Turkey (some people in Turkey buy oil from ISIS too), there is a very strange relationship between both Assad and ISIS and clandestinely between some people in Turkey and ISIS. So, both Turkey (not the government) and ISIS have a strange relationship and Assad (the government of Syria) have a strange relationship with ISIS.

So, because of all this Russia isn't about to jump in and destroy ISIS like NATO and the U.S. are especially now that France and England are bombing ISIS oil wells and production facilities.

So, this is why you are hearing Putin complain about French bombing of ISIS oil facilities now.

So, can the west Trust Putin? Not really.

But then again we couldn't trust Stalin either but they helped break the back of Hitler's armies too so we would only lose 900,000 to their 20 million in Russia.

So, the best way to see this is that sometimes the needs of the U.S. and Russia agree and in other ways they are at counterpoint. It is only realistic to see this. And each's needs will guide whatever alliances come to be in the near and far future.

For example, Russia needs high oil prices to finance their government and social welfare programs for their people. The U.S. need low oil prices to be as competitive as possible as a country here on earth because our wages are too high otherwise to compete on the world stage through exports. So, just in regard to oil prices our needs are the opposite and many other factors are like this as well between the two countries.