For more than eight years, the leaders of North and East Syria have pursued their project of self-rule in defiance of the Assad regime in Damascus. The Kurdish-led region has withstood the Islamic State, multiple Turkish interventions, a partial U.S. withdrawal, and the deployment of Russian troops.
Russian President Vladimir Putin seemingly believed the U.S. withdrawal last autumn would make it possible to finally achieve his foremost objective in Syria: to allow Bashar al-Assad to reclaim control over all Syrian territory. Putin calculated that the semi-autonomous region would easily fall back under control of the central government, the way rebel-held Aleppo or Homs collapsed once regime forces moved in. But that did not happen.
