dr. mark katz was a professor of government and politics at george mason university your kids authored many articles. he is the author of books and articles, for example, leaving without losing, the war on terror after iraq and afghanistan. very fascinating, thank you. he earned his ph.d from the massachusetts institute of technology, so we have a very esteemed group of witnesses today, and we appreciate you being with us. and again if you can summarize in five minutes we will have a good dialogue. dr. aron, you may proceed. >> mr. chairman, ranking member, members of the committee, on the morning of july 19, 2012, gunshots and car bombs explosion woke up the capital of russia's largest autonomous republic at home of its largest muslim ethnicity, the chargers. [inaudible] -- in charge of education in islamic studies. the bomb went off under the core of the chief. he was badly injured. others were killed. appointed only a year before both men were moderate clerics determined -- as the encroachment of fundamentalism, and to strengthen the traditional moderate which is one of the five major br

dr. aron, dr. katz basically called into question whether assad is actually as -- anti-isis as we have been led to believe. could you give us your assessment? i am sure mark went deep into that. i was concentrating largely on the spread of fundamentalism and militancy inside russia from the north caucuses. intuitively, gangsters , aslly find common language stalin did with hitler, for example. so i would not be surprised if that is the case. in any case, they do come to blows, but first they take care progress of liberals. again, that may not apply directly to the free syrian army, but historically, i would think that is probably quite accurate. as somebody who has been studying vladimir putin and his ideology and his goals, i agree that even regardless of what putin's plans are with respect -- two bashar se al-assad per se, i think they are secondary. i think the most important thing to putin in syria is what i call the implementation of the putin doctrine, which is the recovery of geopolitical assets lost by the soviet union in the fall of the soviet state. he wants to establish the presence of russia in the middle east as the dominant outside player. t

dr. aron, dr. katz, just basically called into question whether assad is actually as anti-isil as we have been led to believe. could you give us your assessment of that, please? >> i'm sure mark looked deep into that. i was concentrating largely on the spread of fundamentalism, militancy inside russia from the north caucasus. but intuitively, you know, gangsters usually find common language. stalin did with hitler, for example. so i would not be surprised if that's the case, and in any case they do come to blows up first they take care of the pro-western liberals. and again, you know, that may not just apply directly to the free syrian army, but historically i would think that that's probably quite accurate. as somebody who's been dealing, studying putin and his ideology and his goals, i agree that, even regardless of what his plans are with respect to assad per se, i think they are secondary. i think the most important thing to putin in syria is what i call the implementation of the putin doctrine, as i articulate a few years back, which is the recovery of geopolitical assets lost by the soviet union in the fall of the soviet state. he wants to establish the presence of russ