Russia wants the world to accept its permanent meddling in Syria

Washington Times:

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaking to Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper said the following when asked about Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states adding ground forces to the U.S. led coalition in Syria against the Islamic State, reported Yahoo.

“This is bad as a ground offensive usually turns the war into a permanent one. Just look at what happened in Afghanistan and many other countries. I don’t need to remind you what happened in poor Libya. The Americans and our Arab partners must think well: do they want a permanent war?” It would be impossible to win such a war quickly, he said according to a German translation of his words, “especially in the Arab world, where everybody is fighting against everybody. All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table instead of unleashing a new world war.”

Now that Russian airstrikes have allowed Syrian government forces to retake territory from anti-Assad rebels, supported by the United States, Russia is ready to sue for peace and cement gains on the ground. This is especially timely as it seems the Syrian, Russian, Hezbollah coalition is about to take the Syrian city of Aleppo, where widespread civilian suffering is said to be taking place in the middle of the brutal conflict. Russian state media has been hyperactive promoting Russia’s preferred narrative of events on the ground, accusing the U.S. of bombing civilians in the city as Russia incurs world condemnation over their bombing campaign.
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This argument ignores the facts.  For one, Libya is the mess it is because there were no ground forces used to secure the results of the air campaign.  There was no securing of the arms depots allowing terrorist to arm and spread their chaos throughout the region.

The proposed Saudi force and other Arab forces would be used to push back ISIL's control which Russia used as a pretext for its own operations then promptly started bombing the anti-Assad rebels.