[adorno]

Assad’s in Russia? He’s an Alawite, a minority Shia sect.

Assad was a useful tool for Russia, and now that he's not in power, Putin cannot let it be known that he was just being used for Russia's interests. What other Muslim nation would ever work with him if he alienated them?

[FrankRizzo890]

One of the probably MANY reasons Putin put up with him is that there have been significant natural gas discoveries in the ME recently, and any pipeline to Europe would have to go through Syria. Which Assad refused to allow. (As that would seriously cut into Gazprom’s profits).