That problem is this: Putin's Russia is weak. It can no longer stand toe to toe with the US. It no longer has Europe divided in a stalemate; rather, it sees the continent as dominated by an ever-encroaching anti-Russian alliance. In the Russian view, the country's weakness leaves it at imminent risk, vulnerable to a hostile West bent on subjugating or outright destroying Russia as it did to Iraq and Libya.

This is made more urgent for Putin by his political problems at home. In 2012, during his reelection, popular protests and accusations of fraud weakened his sense of political legitimacy. The problem worsened with Russia's 2014 economic collapse; Putin's implicit bargain with the Russian people had been that he would deliver economic growth and they would let him erode basic rights. Without the economy, what did he have to offer them?

Putin's answer has been to assert Russian power beyond its actual strength — and, in the process, to recast himself as a national hero guarding against foreign enemies. Without a world-power-class military or economy at his disposal, he is instead wielding confusion and uncertainty — which Soviet leaders rightly avoided as existential dangers — as weapons against the West.

Unable to overtly control Eastern Europe, he has fomented risks and crises in there, sponsoring separatists in Ukraine and conducting dangerous military activity along NATO airspace and coastal borders, giving Russia more leverage there. Reasserting a Russian sphere of influence over Eastern Europe, he apparently believes, will finally give Russia security from the hostile West — and make Russia a great power once more.

The US and Nato have expressed concern over reports that Russia is increasing its military presence in Syria.

Unnamed US officials quoted by Reuters say Moscow has sent additional aircraft and two tank landing ships to Russia's naval base in the Syrian coastal city of Tartus, within the past day or so. They also say a small number of naval infantry forces have been deployed.
But a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman insisted on Wednesday that this was nothing new, arguing that Moscow had been openly supplying weapons and sending military specialists to Syria for a long time.
"Russia has never made a secret of its military-technical cooperation with Syria,'' Maria Zakharova said. Syria, for its part, has denied any military build up by Russian troops on its soil.

John Kerry warned Mr Lavrov on Wednesday that if the reports were found to be true, "it could lead to greater violence". The German and French foreign ministers have also warned against a further military escalation.

It's only going to get worse, folks...

Syria crisis: Nato concerned by Russia 'military build-up'
9 September 2015
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34205003

Who else can they trust?