In 2011 Arab Spring reached Syria and violence broke out causing great losses among civilians. Due to Russia’s clear standpoint toward interventions in states internal affairs, the UN Security Council’s has failed four resolutions on the Syrian crisis, which Russia viewed as damaging to its ally, Bashar al-Assad, the head of Syrian government. After four years since the war in Syria, Syrian authorities asked Russia for assistance against the Syrian regime’s enemies, which Russia grants. This study examines Russia’s actions toward Syria from realist and liberalist theoretical perspectives in order to derive which of the theories can best explain Russia’s motives for engagement in the Syrian conflict. The study is conducted as a case study approach and performed using indicators logically substructed from the theories for analysis of meaningsful texts of the empirical data. The outcome of the study is that Russia’s involvement in the Syrian conflict is guided by its geopolitical thinking and nation state security. Maintaining its presence in the region, Russia gains control over oil and gas assets. Russia’s non-intervention principle has been an effective tool to prevent the regime change in Syria, on the fate of which depends how far will Russia advance.