Has Russia saved the Assad regime from collapse?

For the past four-and-a-half years, the Syrian people have experienced violence and some of the most horrific war crimes of our times in a conflict that began with anti-government protests before spiralling into a multi-front war.

Before the Russian invasion of Syria, the Assad regime was collapsing.... If the Russians continue involving in the war inside Syria and supporting Bashar al-Assad, this will attract the jihadists from worldwide to come to Syria and this will create instability and major problems, not just for the region, for the world also.

by Khaled Khoja, SNC president

Almost a quarter of a million people have been killed in Syria’s conflict since it broke out in March 2011, and millions of Syrians are leaving the country to escape the ongoing fighting.

Last week, Russia started bombing various armed groups threatening Syrian government forces, and by doing so it may have bought the regime some valuable time.

But no matter how difficult it is to imagine a future in Syria, various opposition groups are working and fighting for a post-Assad era.

One of them is the Syrian National Coalition, which represents a broad spectrum of people, it says, both on and off the battleground.

Khaled Khoja, the president of the Syrian National Coalition, talks to Al Jazeera about the impact of the Russian involvement in Syria, which he says came just as the Syrian government was about to collapse.

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