Putin’s fight against ISIS in Syria has worked wonders for his popularity in neighbouring Iraq, where some await “Hajji Putin” like a savior

“Hajji Putin Better than Hussein Obama”: Iraqis Say + VIDEO

By GPD on October 8, 2015



Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fight against ISIS in Syria has worked wonders for his popularity in neighbouring Iraq, where some await “Hajji Putin” like a savior.

Sitting at his easel in his central Baghdad workshop, painter Mohammed Karim Nihaya touches up a portrait of Putin he copied from the Internet.

“I have been waiting for Russia to get involved in the fight against Daesh (ISIS),” he says, referring to the so-called “Islamic State” group that last year declared a “caliphate” straddling Iraq and Syria.

“They get results. The United States and its allies on the other hand have been bombing for a year and achieved nothing,” the bespectacled artist says.

An image on the Russian Defence Ministry’s official website on October 7 shows a Russian warship launching a cruise missile in the Caspian Sea during a strike against ISIS group’s positions in Syria. Russian warships joined in strikes in Syria with a volley of cruise missile attacks on October 7 as Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged his air force would back a ground offensive by government forces. AFP PHOTO

Russian warplanes began bombing targets in Syria on September 30 and on Wednesday Moscow ramped up its air war, unleashing cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea.

Only a fraction of Russian air strikes in Syria may have been destined for ISIS but Mohammed, a young jobless man outside the painter’s shop, does not let statistics cloud his enthusiasm.

“Some of them crossed Iraqi airspace and many here, especially among the Shiite majority, would welcome a bit of Russia’s firepower on home soil as a much-awaited game-changer.“
“We don’t want the international coalition, we want only Russia and we will slaughter a sheep to welcome them,” he says.

Some Iraqis see Moscow — which has staunchly backed Damascus and Tehran in recent years — as a more natural ally than the United States, that occupied the country for eight years.

Read more here:
[link to lockerdome.com (secure)]