Russia is set to start flying combat missions in Syria in support of the Assad government. The Obama Administation has pulled out all the stops to keep this from happening, including having Bulgaria and Greece block Russian flights over their countries. (note: Greece refused the request)

President Obama voiced a word of warning to the Russian government this week.

"But we are going to be engaging Russia to let them know that you can't continue to double-down on a strategy that is doomed to failure," he said at an event with military service members during a visit to Maryland.

Doubling down on a failed middle east strategy is our thing! So back off Russia!

Throughout his presidency, President Obama has not wavered from his policy of regime change in Syria.

"We’ll continue to support the moderate opposition there and continue to believe that it will not be possible to fully stabilize that country until Mr. Assad, who has lost legitimacy in the country, is transitioned out,” Mr. Obama said.

That brings up the question of: So what's the plan then?
Just take a look at the current map of Syria.

Exactly who is going to take over Syria if Assad is kicked out, other than islamic jihadists that we are at war with?

It appears that hardliners within the Obama administration have placed the neocon goal of “regime change” in Syria ahead of the extraordinary dangers that could come from the black flag of Sunni terrorism raised over the capital of Damascus. That would likely be accompanied by the Islamic State chopping off the heads of Christians, Alawites, Shiites and other “heretics” and/or Al Qaeda having a major Mideast capital from which to plot more attacks on the West...
In other words, if the U.S. strategy succeeds in collapsing Assad’s defenses, there is really nothing to stop the Sunni terrorists from seizing Damascus and other major cities. Then, U.S. airstrikes on those population centers would surely kill many civilians and further radicalize the Sunnis. To oust the Islamic State and/or Al Qaeda would require a full-scale U.S. invasion, which might be inevitable but would almost certainly fail, much as Bush’s Iraq occupation did.

In reality, there are only four major power groups in Syria today:

The Syria Assad government
ISIS/Daesh
al-Qaeda and non-affiliated jihadist groups
The Kurds

The "moderate opposition" that Obama talks about is largely a fiction that exists only in his mind. Obama called it a "fantasy" last year, and it is even more true today.
While the Free Syria Army does technically still exist, its effectiveness on the battlefield is limited to support operations for the real armies. The last time it launched a significant offensive was 2014.

Sure, there are the Kurds. The most effective fighting force in Syria against ISIS, who also have progressive politics.
But take another look at that map. If Damacus falls, Kurdish forces would separated by hundreds and hundreds of miles of ISIS-dominated territory.
Even if the Kurds even had the capability of making that forced march (they don't), even if Turkey would allow the Kurds to take over Syria (they wouldn't), who says the Shia Alawites in Damascus would welcome the Sunni Kurds? The Kurds are only 10% of the population of Syria.

That only leaves al-Qaeda's Nusra Front and other jihadist groups. You might have noticed that many areas listed as "rebels" aren't actually controlled by al-Nusra. However, they are often controlled by Islamic Front forces, who like ISIS and al-Nusra, are Salafi. Together with Nusra Front, they formed the Army of Conquest which overran Idlib province this summer and pushed the Assad government to the brink.

If the Assad government falls, it'll either be ISIS or Nusra/Islamic Front jihadists that will take over Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo. There will be no moderate, pro-western government in Damascus, but Washington acts like reality doesn't matter.

As scary as these dangers are, there remains a huge gap between the real world of the Middle East and the fantasyland that is Official Washington’s perception of the region. In that land of make-believe, what matters is tough talk from ambitious politicians and opinion leaders, what I call the “er-er-er” growling approach to geopolitics.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton joined in that growling on Wednesday at the Brookings Institution, which has become home to neocons such as Robert Kagan and a host of “liberal interventionists,” such as Michael O’Hanlon and Strobe Talbott.
Though she formally endorsed the nuclear agreement with Iran, former Secretary of State Clinton insulted both the Iranians and the Russians. Noting Russia’s support for the Syrian government, she urged increased punishment of Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin — aimed at forcing Russia to abandon the Assad regime.

And then what Hillary? Unicorns will fart rainbows and the people of Syria will welcome us as liberators? Why do warhawks in Washington keep trying to sell us this fantasy that never works?

At least Russia is looking at the situation realistically.
They've twisted Assad's army until he agreed to compromise.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Syria's Bashar al-Assad is ready to hold snap parliamentary elections and allow a "healthy" opposition to share power.
The Syrian president "is in agreement with" holding elections for parliament, as well as establishing contacts with the so-called healthy opposition and bringing them into the leadership, Putin told reporters on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Friday.

That's a good starting point for talks to end this war. That's what diplomacy looks like.
Russia wants to see ISIS defeated too.
However, unlike Washington, Russia would rather ISIS be defeated soon, instead of by forces that haven't been invented yet. The consequences of waiting for this imagined scenario to happen are extreme.

Another million Syrians will flee their homes before the end of the year if the war continues unabated, a senior UN official has said.
Yacoub el-Hillo, the humanitarian coordinator in Syria, said that unless urgent action was taken to resolve the escalating conflict, refugees would also continue to flow out of the region.

Unless Washington wakes up soon, we are on the cusp of another enormous wave of refugees from Syria.