Putin's Middle East Balancing Act

On October 16, Russian air strikes hit a furniture workshop, a sawmill, and an olive press in Syria's Idlib Province, killing 10 civilians, including a child, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the White Helmets civil defense force. Two days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin was playing the Middle East peacemaker at a meeting with journalists from countries in the BRICS grouping of nations ahead of a summit this week, saying Moscow is ready to do whatever it can to end what he called the "terrible strikes…