Russia's Putin is 'protecting' the Syrian regime, says Obama

US President Barack Obama today said America and Russia have different attitude towards the Assad regime but acknowledged that the Moscow-brokered deal offers a chance to destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is "protecting" the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Obama said.
"I don't think that Putin has the same values that we do. And I think obviously by protecting Assad he has a different attitude about the Assad regime," Obama told the ABC news in an interview.
"But what I've also said to him directly is that we both have an interest in preventing chaos, we both have an interest in preventing terrorism. The situation in Syria right now is untenable," he said.

"As long as Assad's in power, there is going to be some sort of conflict there, and that we should work together to try to find a way in which the interests of all the parties inside of Syria, the Alawites, the Sunnis, the Christians, that everybody is represented and that there is a way of bringing the temperature down so that horrible things that are happening inside the country are continuing to happen," Obama said.
"I think there's a way for Putin, despite me and him having a whole lot of differences, to play an important role in that. So I welcome him being involved. I welcome him saying, 'I will take responsibility for pushing my client, the Assad regime, to deal with these chemical weapons'."

"Because I think that if, in fact not only Russia gets involved, but if potentially Iran gets involved as well in recognising that what's happening there is a train wreck that hurts not just Syrians but destabilising the entire region," he said in response to a question.

The US blames the Assad regime for a chemical weapon attack in the suburbs of Damascus that left over 1,400 people died.
Yesterday, US-Russia hammered out a deal in Geneva to bring Syria's chemical weapons under international control today.
Quoiting former US President Ronald Reagan, who said, "trust but verify," Obama said he thinks that's always been the experience of US presidents when we're interacting with first Soviet leaders and now Russian leaders.

"You know Putin and I have strong disagreements on a whole range of issues. But I can talk to him. We have worked together on important issues.
"The fact of the matter is, is that we couldn't be supplying all of our troops in Afghanistan if he weren't helping us in transporting those supplies through the northern borders of Afghanistan. So there are a whole range of areas where we currently work together. We've worked together on counterterrorism operations," Obama said.