Putin has managed a reasonable approach to getting almost all ethnic Russians on board for his perceived over-all mission. That requires his not ignoring the fact that some Russians still have leanings towards very incongruous, and clearly culturally conflicting periods in their recent past (1900 to the present).
But absolutely nothing in what you see as compromising his ethical credibility, from your perspective, argues in the slightest against the historic opportunity he has in Syria.
He does indeed have an "historic opportunity" here. The Middle East has never been entirely under Russia's control before.
What I posted above provided credibility to my 'claims' that his aims there are only to expand Russia's power and influence, part of their overall expansionist agenda. Thanks in part to dopes like you cheering him on, they may very well soon be in control of the Middle East AND, once again, Eastern Europe.
This is in addition to whatever it is they're doing together with the ChiComs, conducting annual joint war games since 2005, building a major seaport together, etc, etc. Actually, it's pretty obvious what they and the ChiComs are up to: they're preparing for war with us and our NATO allies when they begin to make moves in that part of the world.