Vladimir Putin, the new hero of the American right wing, is now trying to tie the Syrian chemical weapons deal to the US calling off a military strike.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that an agreement in which Syria would turn over its chemical weapons to international control would only work if the United States and its allies renounce the use of force against Damascus, RT.com reports.

[…]

Putin acknowledged that he had discussed such a possibility with President Obama on the sidelines of the G-20 summit last week in St. Petersburg.

It was agreed, Putin said, “to instruct Secretary of State [John Kerry] and Foreign Minister [Sergey Lavrov] to get in touch” and “try to move this idea forward.”

Putin fleshed out the proposal Tuesday, saying it would only work if Washington called off its strike against Damascus.

“Certainly, this is all reasonable, it will function and will work out, only if the US and those who support it on this issue pledge to renounce the use of force, because it is difficult to make any country - Syria or any other country in the world - to unilaterally disarm if there is military action against it under consideration,” Putin said on Tuesday.

Now that’s some quality Russian turn-speak! In reality, exactly the opposite is true — Assad never would have agreed to this without a looming US military strike, and that’s incredibly obvious.