On Tuesday, acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan tried again to convince Turkey’s defense minister not to purchase Russian missiles. On Monday, President Trump met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law, who is also the country’s finance minister, with the same goal. But even with the controversial missiles yet to be delivered, Russia has already outplayed the U.S.
When Turkey, a U.S. ally and NATO member, announced that it would be purchasing Russian S-400 missiles, the U.S. and NATO immediately rejected the proposal. A NATO member country using weapons systems engineered and maintained by an adversary posed a clear risk to integrated defense systems. Instead, the U.S. offered to sell Ankara PATRIOT missiles or to help facilitate a deal with another European country.
Erdoğan, however, went ahead courting Russia, prompting Washington to cancel a planned delivery of F-35 fighter jets. Now, Erdoğan has said he’s signed a final deal with Moscow and recently met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss speeding up the delivery of the missiles. And Washington, caught between a taking a hard stand that pushes Turkey closer to Russia and giving Putin more influence through Russian missile systems, hasn’t quite figured out what to do.
For Russia, that’s already a victory. The controversy over a NATO ally integrating Russian defense systems has already blocked NATO from expanding its F-35 operations in Turkey. More importantly, the debate has sparked rifts within NATO on how to respond, even as the U.S. threatens that Turkey must choose between the U.S. and Russia — a threat that will likely push Turkey even closer to Moscow, again playing into Putin’s hands.
The best part for Russia? Aside from selling some missiles, Putin doesn’t have to lift a finger.
