The eyes of world leaders are on riveted the threats posed by a nuclear Iran and an imploding Syria. I wish that was just the stuff of fiction, but I’m afraid it’s all too real. As we have noted, the threats posed by Iran and Syria will top the agenda when President Obama visits Israel later this month. In June, Iran and Syria will top the agenda when the President meets with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as well.

To me, the interesting questions are these: What is the Russian leader planning to do about these two countries in 2013? Does he have a new policy towards either or both that he is planning to unveil? Putin seems to be keeping an unusually low profile so far this year. What does he have up his sleeve?

“President Barack Obama has phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin, welcoming Russian cooperation on international efforts to confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” reports the Associated Press. “The White House says the two men also discussed the ongoing violence in Syria, a topic that still divides Washington and Moscow. The White House says Putin and Obama agreed to hold their own meeting in June on the sidelines of the upcoming meeting of leading industrial nations in Northern Ireland. Obama also told Putin he looked forward to visiting St. Petersburg for the meeting of leading rich and developing nations in September. The White House says Putin and Obama welcome ‘substantive and constructive consultations’ by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov over a political transition in Syria.”

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