For better or worse, Russian policy in Syria reflects not just a goal, but also a real strategy aimed at achieving it – a strategy that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently advanced by meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for talks in Moscow. Now that Russia has knocked at least some of Assad’s enemies on their heels, the Kremlin has decided that the time has come to discuss forthcoming political arrangements – or, perhaps more accurately, the time has come to tell Assad what will happen next.