Putin’s latest laugh at Obama’s claim of ‘respect’

By Post Editorial Board

September 14, 2015 | 7:22pm

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, smile as they shake hands in the Kremlin in Moscow in 2006. Photo: AP

Much to President Obama’s apparent astonishment, Vladimir Putin has just called his (latest) bluff on Syria. And by all accounts, the president has no idea what to do about it.

We understand Obama’s shock: Just last June, he boasted, “Once again, the United States is the most respected country on Earth.”

Of course, no one but Obama himself actually believed that. Now the Russian autocrat has provided another very public demonstration of just how untrue it is.

Despite Team Obama’s repeated warnings, Russia is flying sophisticated military equipment and personnel to Syria in order to bolster strongman Bashar al-Assad in his genocidal civil war.

Washington got Bulgaria to close its airspace to the flights, so Moscow simply switched to an air corridor over Iran and Iraq — and vowed to keep it up.

Last Friday, Obama said at Fort Meade, “We are going to be engaging Russia to let them know that you can’t continue to double down on a strategy that’s doomed to failure.”

But Putin doesn’t think his strategy’s doomed to failure — because he doesn’t think the West has the guts to stop him.

And he’s let the president know precisely what he thinks of those warnings by publicly laughing in his face.

After all, Assad did the same thing, resuming the use of deadly chemical weapons against his own people after Obama blinked at his own “red line.”

Of course the Russians are blatantly ignoring Secretary of State John Kerry’s warning that intervention in Syria would “further escalate the conflict.” It will — indeed, it’ll guarantee an even greater flood of refugees — but Putin doesn’t care.

And Obama, determined to go down in history as the president “who ended two wars,” refuses to get involved.

Indeed, the White House may actually pretend Moscow is a new partner against ISIS — whose record of atrocities is more than matched by Assad’s.

President Theodore Roosevelt famously enacted a foreign policy of “Speak softly but carry a big stick.” President Obama continues to do just the reverse.