I believe we see the start of a Russian initiative to work out a deal with the Syrians to prevent Obama from ordering an attack.
If the Syrians will play ball with Russia....then Putin shall be the Winner and Obama the distinct loser. Obama should never have dissed Putin personally as he did....as Putin has every motivation to cut Obama off at the knees anyway he can.
Putin shall be seen as a Peace Maker and Obama will be painted as being the War Monger.....and rightfully so as anything that stops an American Attack is the right thing to do.
Obama is way out of his depth...and has been since being elected the first time.
Or perhaps, all along, Obama has been playing a very clever bluff to get Assad to give up his CW. Even if Assad were to hand over most of them and keep a secret stash, he would never be able to use them again, without bringing the Russians down on top of him.
As for Putin, he will never been seen as anything other than an opportunistic despot.