Everyone's missing the really major development of the Syrian conflict

Persistent rumors resurfaced at the end of last month that Russia, dismayed by the difficulties that the Syrian regime has endured at the hands of ISIS and other rebel groups, has committed a large-scale force into the country to prop up the faltering Assad regime.

But these unconfirmed reports are nothing but rumors couched in the barest of facts, Mark Galeotti, a New York University professor specializing in global affairs and Russian and Slavic studies, told Business Insider.

In fact, the rumors miss one of the major developing stories of the conflict. Ultimately, "Russia sees Assad as a spent force," Galeotti told BI. "We keep hearing these stories because there are people with political incentives for when one data point pops up."

Although Russia sees Assad as "spent," Moscow still does not want to see the regime crumble. But it seems unwilling to insert itself into Syria's geopolitical nightmare, at a huge political and economic cost, to support a figure that it ultimately believes is on the way out.

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