This paper features four essays which illuminate the motives behind Russia’s military involvement in the Syrian Civil War and what its next steps might be. As the essay contributors see it, Moscow may be attempting to 1) generate jobs and export revenues via its arms rather than energy industry; 2) shift the Russian public’s focus away from former promises of prosperity, which the oil slump has so manifestly put out of reach, to the restoration of their country’s lost greatness, etc.