Obama: Putin's Syria moves are signs of weakness

President Obama is disputing suggestions that Vladimir Putin's military action in Syria reflects a challenge to American leadership in the Middle East.

"If you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership," Obama said in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes set to air on Sunday night.

While Putin says that military strikes in Syria are targeting Islamic State militants, U.S. officials say the Russians are going after opponents of Bashar al-Assad's government.

Obama and his aides have said that Assad's removal from power is essential to stability in Syria.

In the 60 Minutes interview, Obama said that — as with the Russian incursion into Ukraine — Putin's activity in Syria is a sign of weakness.

"Syria was Russia's only ally in the region," Obama told CBS. "And today, rather than being able to count on their support and maintain the base they had in Syria ... Mr. Putin now is devoting his own troops, his own military, just to barely hold together by a thread his sole ally."