There aren't a whole lot of them left in Syria, but Assad's Alawites are considered their local protectors against the Sunni Moslems.
Russia now needs to move in on the Copts in Egypt and assorted residual Orthodox congregations hither and yon around the world.
Good point. The changes in Iraq post-Saddam, coupled with the so-called "Arab spring" (what a misnomer!), have led to persecution and killings.
There aren't a whole lot of them left in Syria, but Assad's Alawites are considered their local protectors against the Sunni Moslems.
A defense of Eastern Christianity was also an important Russian motivation in Serbia. Of course the atheists at the BBC don't mention this.
In Syria, if the Sunni rebels prevail, they will slaughter the Alawites, Christians and Shiites. The Sunnis would carry out a bloodbath of much greater proportions than the current skirmishes.
The Russian mentality appreciates more than us why a secular strongman is required to rule Muslim-majority countries. Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak, Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad all brutally kept Islamists in check and allied with and protected minorities, to include Christians, sometimes Jews and usually whichever of the Sunnis or Shiites were in the minority. The Syrian Alawites, of which Assad is a member, have centuries of experience keeping the Islamists at bay.
From Israel's perspective, Assad is at least the devil they know.
At this point, I hope that Assad prevails.