Rods, we have seen many stories from west.. according to those Assad should have removed long ago..
Putin is a longer story imo
Time will tell, personally I think Russia will go through another revolution, through weakness and more regions like Siberia, Volga Tartars, Chechnya will become independent states and Crimea will revert back to Ukraine. Putin is doing what he is doing, not from political strength but from political weakness.
The reality is that Russia on its $2tn economic strength is a minor regional power, with uncompetitive industrialised and agricultural sectors and are only staying afloat economically on their gas and oil exports. The EU and US by comparison both have GDP's of about $17tn each. If it wasn't for its nuclear arsenal and vast amount of Soviet era weapons, it would be safely ignored by the rest of the world.