Making the announcement at the Khmeimim Airbase near Latakia, Putin addressed Russian soldiers, stating that they were returning to their homeland, families and friends as the “victor” of the Syrian Civil War.
Transition from Axis to Balance PolicyTurkey abstained from direct military intervention in the Syrian civil war and this was something unexpected by Washington, which, previously too, had not received logistical support from Turkey during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Since they have the self-vision of being cultivated, founders of liberal democracy and forerunners of all modern achievements in the world, their awareness of the self is simply being the good, independent of which kind of stance they have or what their actions are, while the rest does not really matter at all.
The default alternative is the continuation of the Cold War alliance structure with slight modifications, where Russia is perceived as an anti-American power that needs to be contained, whereas China continues to be the most favoured nation in economic terms as part of a quasi-appeasement strategy.
Clearly, tens of billions of dollars that the Putin government invested in military modernization and revamping since the not-so-successful 5 Days War against Georgia paid off.
The Syrian Civil War has begun in 2011 during the process called the "Arab Spring" which has destabilized an immense geography from Libya to Afghanistan, passing from Egypt, Yemen, and Iraq.