What, exactly, are the Russian military doing on Syrian territory? This is so far from their own borders.
Russian forces are in Syria, at the request of the elected Syrian government. BTW, how come the NATO forces are there in Syria? Who invited them there? And who invited NATO troops to Libya and Yemen? Or for that matter Iraq or Niger? AFAIK, there are no instances of Russian troops in any foreign nation unless the (elected) government of that country requested for that. On the other hand, how can you explain the presence of NATO forces in 100 plus nations? Who asked NATO to play world police?