Truth is stranger than fiction. The complexity of world politics throws up surprising combinations. The teamwork between two unlikely bedfellows, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama, to try and resolve the grinding Syrian war is a prime example. Although the latest ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and the US has unfortunately unravelled, such initiatives are positive omens because Mr Putin and Mr Obama are cooperating against the odds. Given the overall misgivings between Russia and the US on numerous fronts, why exactly are they essaying a puzzling tandem in Syria? Great powers do not view the entirety of their foreign relations in crude black and white or zero-sum game terms. They segment one issue from another and resort to quid pro quos that serve broader goals. Mr Putin was never interested in getting bogged down in endless war in Syria. To him, Syria was a test case of Russia’s return as an acknowledged great power, which must be included at the high table as a decision-maker to resolve the crisis. Western attempts to exclude him and to impose a solution in Syria prompted him to intervene directly by inserting the Russian military and altering the local balance-of-power in favour of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.