The United States and Russia are now proposing to drop food and other emergency aid from the air if President Bashar al-Assad of Syria does not allow trucks to deliver supplies to his besieged cities. Airdrops are a risky and desperate move — costly, hard to deliver accurately and, if poorly targeted, a threat to kill or injure the people they are supposed to help.

On the surface the move seems a humanitarian gesture from two nations that are supposedly partners in ending Syria’s bloody civil war. What it really does is highlight, once again, the duplicity of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, in Syria and elsewhere. Mr. Assad remains in power largely because of Russian military assistance. It is hard to believe that Mr. Putin, who fancies himself a man who can get what he wants, could not persuade Mr. Assad to let aid get through to the cities if he chose to try.

While promising Secretary of State John Kerry that he would work with America to end the war that has reportedly killed up to 470,000 people, Mr. Putin has been unable or unwilling to stop Mr. Assad from shelling civilians and, according to reports, is continuing Russian airstrikes as well. A temporary cease-fire that raised hopes for a more durable peace has now largely collapsed, talks between the Assad government and opposition forces have broken down and plans to begin a negotiated political transition to a more inclusive government by Aug. 1 seem ever more remote.

Syria is just one arena where Mr. Putin’s obsessive quest to make Russia great again has fueled instability and reawakened political suspicions and animosities that faded after the fall of the Soviet Union.