Not only is Russia on the ground in Syria with its military the last major political and military footprint for U.S. in the Middle East which is in Iraq is now where the Russians have established their joint information center.
“Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria have agreed to establish a joint information center in Baghdad to coordinate their operations against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) militants, according to sources.”
“The main goal of the center will be gathering, processing and analyzing current information about the situation in the Middle East – primarily for fighting IS,” a military-diplomatic source told Russian news agencies on Saturday.”
“The information center in the Iraqi capital will be headed by an officer of one of the founding countries on a rotating basis. Rotation will take place every three months. According to the source, Iraq will run the center for the next three months.”
http://www.rt.com/news/316592-russia-syria-islamic-state/
