Actually Russia was part of Assad's problem, as it hadn't enough resources to defend Assad.
It confirms how incompetent Putin is. Instead of being obsessed by the Soviet Union's past glory and trying to remain an influent superpower with a GDP at a the level of Spain or Italy, he should have focused on developing his country, like China did.
The irony is that he got played by the U.S. and its allies, in the same way the USSR had been weakened by Reagan. Forced to spend Russia's limited resources until there are barely any left! π