The US missile strikes against Moscow's main ally in the Middle East have driven relations to a new low -- but just may have opened a very small window of opportunity. The threat of a direct collision between the US and Russia in Syria had "significantly increased," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday on a conference call with reporters. Later, they minimized the impact of the strikes and announced that improved air defenses would be dispatched to Syria. Speaking about the missile strikes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov lamented Friday that "it's sad how damaging this is to the already bad relations between US and Russia." Some analysts in Moscow think that if anything -- by his action in Syria -- President Trump may liberate himself from the image of being Russia's man in the White House.

Source: CNN April 07, 2017 15:00 UTC