I've written before on how Russian involvement in the war in Syria is about more than just propping up the Assad regime. President Vladimir Putin has also been putting on a demonstration of military might, both to enhance Russia's status as a resurgent power and to show off all its new hardware to prospective international buyers.
And things had been going well: Ground-based Russian planes have been flying sorties at a highly efficient pace; warships in the Caspian Sea have hit targets in northern Syria with cruise missiles; one of Russia's new T-90 tanks survived relatively unscathed after being hit by a U.S.-made TOW missile.
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