[TicToc]

I see it as more of a Chess move. Putin is showing his support of an friendly nation while flexing Russia's muscles to the international community. In addition the presence of Russian troops makes it very difficult for the west to intervene in its typical fashion (that being the infiltration of special operations and the dropping of lots of destruction from the sky). If the west infiltrated troops there is the chance no matter how small that the Russian molecules may run into the western molecule with a very poor reaction and a major international incident. In addition if the west drops bombs as we are want to do in these situations the Russians can claim (accurately or inaccurately) that those bombs killed Russian military forces with a get negative effect being the end outcome for western parties.