@hightor,
hightor wrote:If the Russkies thought that the threat to leak the contents of the infamous 'dossier' would compel good behavior by Trump it looks as if they miscalculated. We can expect them to put all their cards on the table now since the blackmail trick didn't work. Should make for good reading.
Setting aside the fact that Russia isn't trying to blackmail Trump to begin with, what makes you think that Russia is at all unhappy with these missile strikes?
Russia wants to keep Assad in power so they keep their military bases, yes. But that doesn't mean that they like being tainted by being associated with Assad's war crimes.
These missile strikes did not remove Assad from power. But they may have curtailed Assad's ability to commit atrocities that embarrass Russia. They may also have made Assad more reliant on Russian air power. The missile strikes don't seem to have harmed any Russians.
Putin is probably pretty happy with the way these missile strikes turned out.
I would not be surprised to learn that whatever forewarning Russia had of these missile strikes, they decided to keep it to themselves and not pass it along to Assad.
