Russia, Seeking to Salvage Military Bases, Goes Hat in Hand to Syria

The time had come to bend the knee — or at least bend to reality.

A delegation of Russian diplomats arrived last Tuesday in a caravan of white SUVs for a summit in Damascus and an unenviable assignment: lay the groundwork for Russia to keep its military bases in Syria, less than two months after rebels had toppled Moscow’s preferred strongman, Bashar al-Assad.

To do so, the delegation would need to win over a people the Russian military had bombed ruthlessly, helping Mr. al-Assad, for years.

Awaiting them was Ahmed al-Shara, who had survived a decade of Russian airstrikes to emerge as Syria’s new interim leader. He stood in the presidential palace and faced the Kremlin’s envoys for a long-awaited reckoning.

The talks that ensued, the first between Moscow and Damascus since the end of the nearly 14-year war, ended unresolved. But they marked the beginning of potentially drawn-out negotiations about what role, if any, Russia will play in postwar Syria, having lost its bid to keep Mr. al-Assad in power.

The meeting demonstrated the kind of geopolitical horse-trading that has begun in the aftermath of Syria’s civil war — with the potential to remake the Middle East. World powers are jockeying for influence, as Syria’s fledgling leadership tries to win legitimacy, security and aid through disciplined and stony-eyed realpolitik.

“I think the general air in Damascus is, ‘We Syrians don’t need a fight with anyone at this point, including our former enemies,’” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “So de-escalation and pragmatism are the names of the game.”