[PGR88]

Putin, for now, does need ground troops. He needs only supply air-power and advisors and weapons. Putin is too smart to get dragged into another Afghanistan. Hezbollah and Iran will provide the muscle. The downfall of Assad would be a huge hit to both of them.

I read somewhere that Hezbollah has already had >10% of its fighters killed in Syria.

Moreover, Putin will claim the moral high ground - battling ISIS that Obama can’t/won’t defeat, helping refugees.

[Trumpinator]

Putin wins if Assad stays or if Syria collapses into mini-states. Why? Because he has bases already on Syria's only coast and is protecting the Alawite and Christian territories leaving the Sunni Arabs behind. Kurds maybe on Putin's side also. The Kurdish militias are old allies from the Soviet Union era.

The Sunni areas are left to the ISIS scum and to America to deal with if Syria collapses like that.