Putin fires back as top diplomats meet on Syria

Hours before the top diplomats from his nation and the United States begin a high-stakes meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin took to The New York Times to argue against military intervention in Syria and jab his U.S. counterpart.

“I almost wanted to vomit,” the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee said after reading the op-ed.

“The reality is I worry when someone who came up through the KGB tells us what is in our national interests and what is not,” Sen. Robert Menendez added.

In the op-ed, Putin writes that a U.S. military strike without approval from the UN Security Council “would constitute an act of aggression” and  “could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.”

As permanent members of the UN Security Council, both Russia and China have blocked resolutions throughout the conflict in Syria.

Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Russian counterpart i Geneva, Switzerland Thursday to discuss Russia’s plan to have Syria surrender its chemical weapons in an effort to avoid U.S. military strikes.

Putin used his op-ed to make his own appeal to the American people, just as President Barack Obama did Tuesday night, when he said America could act to keep children from being killed with poisonous gas.

“That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional,” Obama said.

Putin criticized the idea of exceptionalism, calling it “extremely dangerous…whatever the motivation.”

In response, a White House official called that statement and Putin’s comments in general “irrelevant,” saying Putin is now fully invested in Syria’s disarmament of chemical weapons – something military strikes would likely never completely accomplish.

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