It actually only took about 3 hours , so I didn ' t lie woo ! The worst part tbh was the slashes as out editor doesn ' t display opacity correctly . <| sep |> Yes , Russia was backing Yanukovych . A democratically elected president . He was voted in with 48 % of the vote ahead of second place at 45 %. Then the protests started near the end of 2013 . These can be considered rebels for an easier explanation . Russia chose to intervene as their ally was being toppled by rebels . Imagine Quebec were to jump up and start protests and throw over the elected government , would the US not step in ? Obviously the US would not claim the country as their own but they would remain until stability was in order . The point of making alliances still stands in that you want to protect those alliances . What does Russia have to gain or even maintain by allowing a rebel group who supports the West more than their current allies , to take over power ? Especially when the official was an elected one . So in the argument that Russia invaded a country , you can ' t leave out the points that Russia was concerned about their own alliances and their own interests in this . An ally of theirs was being pulled to the other side by a rebel group . Russia then gets completely black listed by NATO for doing this . In some respects , this is bullying Russia which is something I never thought I would have to say . Speaking of Assad . Again , this is an ally of Russia . They are willing and pushing to work with Russia . Of course they will have Assad ' s interests in mind . America arms rebels to overthrow Assad for a more westernfriendly official to take power . We have seen this before in Saddam . Do we remember what happened last time we overthrew a government to place a more westernfriendly party in power ? We ended up in a war a decade later with that very same country . We are arming rebels to overthrow Assad , this turmoil has left ISIS to form who is not only killing Assad ' s men but everyone else . There was stability in a sense prior to this . We aren ' t even sure we are arming the right people . Promises mean nothing during war and we might just end up with another Iraq situation . So how about we press the idea of a nofly zone over Syria ? This was Clinton ' s plan . Last time we imposed a nofly zone it turned out really well . Libya is a perfectly functional society now . A nofly zone ? are you kidding ? ?? This is absolute madness . We are pressing Russia ' s buttons and seeing how much we can get away with . It is absolutely insane . Russia is doing what you ' d expect an ally to do , protect their allies , we are arming the rebels to fight them and creating a space where a group like ISIS can find a hub to work in . Then we declare the best bet to be a nofly zone in a country where one of the world ' s largest super powers is attempting to protect . We can ' t be serious . Yes , Russia is tied up with Iran , Syria , China . Yes , America is tied up with flipping governments for more westernfriendly parties , how can we expect to keep doing this ? Saudi Arabia , if a rebel group was to rise up and attempt to flip the king , we would be there in a heartbeat to defend them . He is willing to work with us , he provides plenty of product for our economy and we don ' t want to see him go regardless of how terrible of a leader he is . This is just Russia ' s position with Syria and Assad . Why on earth would we be pressing this matter in the way we have ? Russia is one of our biggest threats strictly because we make it so .