What is Russia doing here?

So Russia is siding with the Assad regime? This is very concerning. I fully understand a country protects its strategic interests, but it would appear Russia's actions are assisting Daesh fighters in the region - that can't be good for anybody.

The risk of United States or English fighter jets engaging each other seems to be high, we now learn British forces have permission to engage Russian fighter jets if they act in an offensive manner.

Russian fighter jets have strayed into Turkish territory on a number of occasions, a NATO country and while Turkish fighter jets have been scrambled, not Russian fighter jets have been fired upon or shot down.

The risk of escalation in this region is very high and could easily draw a number of strategically important nations into direct conflict with each other - this is really concerning.