The Nature of Russia’s military presence in Syria

With the intensification of activities of terrorist groups, which are deemed to be the second and third generations of al-Qaeda, in recent years particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, and with taking into account the inhumane and horrifying crimes committed by some of these groups like ISIL (also known as Daesh), Boko Haram, al-Nusra Front, and al-Shabab, a possible scenario for forming anti-terror coalitions turned into a serious issue.
Moscow knows that the West is seeking to use terrorism as a tool to harm its interests and even engage Russia in the ongoing security crisis in the region. Therefore, it is trying to block this scheme by direct military involvement in the Syrian conflict.  
In order to better comprehend the nature of Russia’s presence in Syria, we need to first evaluate the nature of those coalitions which are fighting terrorism inside the Arab country. In other words, we ought to understand which one is leading a genuine campaign against terrorism and which one is just pretending to confront the terrorists.
They fall into three categories:
1.    The Western coalition or the so-called US and NATO-led international coalition
2.    The Saudi-led Arab coalition
3.    The quadripartite cooperation between Iran, Russia, Iraq, and Syria, which will turn into a 5-strong group with China joining it.
The so-called international coalition, despite all the ballyhoo and theatrical flights with modern warplanes above the terrorist-held areas in Iraq and Syria, failed to defeat or even contain the terrorists after months of bombardment. It soon turned out that most of the coalition’s attacks had not been genuine.  The warplanes had been busy targeting other sites rather than the terrorists’ fighting positions and also are dropping arms and food supplies for them.
Also, formation of an army made up of what Washington calls "moderate” opposition groups has been among other major strategies of the US. They trained the "moderate” militants in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey and then sent them to fight in Syria. This approach of the Americans also failed to yield the desired results and finally faced defeat.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the frontrunner Democratic presidential candidate recently said that the Pentagon's costly program to train and equip "moderate” militants to fight inside Syria has failed. 5,000 militants received training under a $500 million project. Reports say that most of the US-trained militias in Syria were either killed or captured. Also, large numbers of them had defected with their weapons to other rebel groups operating in Syria, including Daesh and al-Nusra Front. Many of military commanders also believe that the US program for training "moderate” militants in Jordan and Turkey has failed.
The scenario of the Saudi-led Arab coalition is more attention-grabbing. The coalition had been reportedly made up of 10 countries, but later it turned out that only Saudi Arabia and the UAE are its members. This pseudo-coalition was not aimed at fighting terrorism, but rather killing civilians in Yemen in a brutal aggression against the impoverished country.
Therefore, this two-strong coalition was only carrying the name of fighting terrorism; otherwise, they are among the staunchest allies of the terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya.
The recently-formed coalition compromised of Iran, Russia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanese Hezbollah Resistance Movement, and probably China in the near future, is the only genuine anti-terror coalition. It has shaken the very foundation of the terrorists operating in Syria and Iraq since the beginning of its operations.
In a short period of time, vast swathes of the terrorist-held areas in Syria have been liberated from the grip of the terrorists by the coalition operations and large numbers of the terrorists, including the Daesh have been killed with the continuation of the operations from Latakia to Euphrates. The coalition’s genuine attacks and beating strikes have drawn criticism from the backers and so-called enemies of the terrorist groups, including NATO, US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Emirate, and Turkey.  In an act of frustration, they have resorted to verbal criticism against Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Saudi regime also has asked its Wahhabi scholars to issue Fatwa (religious decree) against Iran and Russia.
Nevertheless, Russia views terrorism as a threat to its national security. It also considers intensification of terror-related activities in Afghanistan, Central Asia, Caucasus and its peripheral areas a warning for its security. Russia is directly exposed to threat of terrorism due to Syria’s developments.  
  In addition, recent crises in Tajikistan demonstrated that terrorism is only some steps away from Russia, which can lead to creation of chaos in areas like Chechen, Ingushetia and Dagestan. Russia is trying to, with reinforcing Syria and Iraq and converging with the resistance front as the flag bearer of a genuine campaign against terrorism, safeguard its own security. It should be again noted that Russia is directly exposed to extremism and terrorism from Chechen to Aleppo.
Thus, it seems that the so-called coalitions which are pretending to fight terrorism, such as the American-Saudi coalition, have forgotten the horrifying crimes committed by their handfeds in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and Yemen in recent years, including the burning alive of prisoners and buying and selling Syrian and Izadi women and girls. All these crimes amount to crime against humanity, war crimes, genocide, and crime against peace. A large number of Western and Arab officials along with their stooge terrorists would be taken to court and given the harshest punishment if the existing laws pertaining to international relations are properly enforced.