The whole region is an ungovernable medieval rathole populated by tribes that have been at each others throats for 6000 years (or as Ben Carson would say, since the earth was created
). Putin will be opening up a can of worms he won't be able to close. By bombing Sunni rebels to shore up the brutal and corrupt regime of Bashar al-Assad (a Shiite), he's taken sides. The 20 million Sunnis living in former soviet republics on his southern border aren't going to take kindly to that. I wouldn't be surprised to see a wave of suicide bombers inside Russia sometime soon.
We've been sticking our noses in that region for 70 years, and everything we've touched has turned to schitte. The same thing will happen to Russia. Apparently they've forgotten their humiliation in Afghanistan. Time for a new lesson.