Russia is simply seizing the opportunity Obama gave them to grab a strategic foothold in the resource-rich Middle East. If Obama was serious about going after ISIS, which I don’t believe he ever was, we likely wouldn’t be in this situation, worrying about Russian expansionism in the region. I actually think Obama did what he did here deliberately, for the precise purpose of giving the Russians that opportunity, despite the public smoke and mirrors BS.
I agree that Russia is exploiting a power vacuum in the Middle East caused by Obama’s withdrawal of US forces in the region. I think it’s a stretch, though, to claim that Obama wanted to increase Russian influence in the region. I don’t believe that Obama thought through the consequences of his long-held desire to extract our troops from Iraq. As for Syria, we are making the same mistake there that we made in Libya and in Egypt, supporting the MB-led “Arab Spring.”. Fortunately, the Egytian military was still strong enough to reverse the initial events in Egypt.