Well Putin isn't exactly wrong regarding the oil. The border is quite porous and the Turks apparently aren't overly enthusiastic about policing the border for smuggling, so read into it what you will. There are claims that the Daesh oil scheme goes right to the Erdogan family itself.
Respect for adequate comments on topic.
Not going to comment on the other statements - but the Iranians, Saudis, Turks and non MEG countries would have been feeding their respective sides
Direct influence on the ground war. Russia is using all the assets they in play have to help Assad.
That's a good point. My question would be does the Russia EW equipment make them totally invulnerable within that perimeter?
Far from it
It's also worth pointing out that there is no reason to think that the Russians would aim to or want to do that even if they could.
The usual anti-NATO rhetoric aside, you're probably right. He's still working on trying to create some sort of coalition that would include the west and Russia on the same side. The meeting with Holland took place, as scheduled, to discuss cooperation in Syria, post-shootdown.
the other reality is that neither the US, France, Israel or Russia are going to demonstrate open capability
All true AFAIK apart from one detail: there's no credible route from any of the oil wells in Syria to that part of the border. The stories of ISIS oil being smuggled into Turkey all describe the convoys crossing the border far to the east, at least a couple of hundred km away & mostly further. To get from Daesh oil wells to the border of Hatay they'd have to cross front lines a few times.
In all likelihood it was bombing convoys of weapons headed in the opposite direction, or rebel positions in the area. The SAA has been pushing towards the Turkish border for a while with the idea that closing it would cut off rebel supplies from that side. The Turks have shot down Syrian aircraft in the area, and their weapon convoys headed southward are well known. It's likely the shoot down of the Su-24 was an attempt to send Russia a message, that Turkey did not appreciate their, and the Syrian, attempts to close the border. Of course now that area is being bombed more then before, so it's not like they've succeeded.
Funny thing is, Russia would have likely taken less issue with Turkey pulling a "Crimea" on the Turkmen, provided the border was closed, and no weapons were going to other groups in Syria. Even an outright annexation of that one region, provided Turkey stopped sending large quantities of uncontrolled weapons and importing ISIS oil, would have likely caused less of a response from Russia then shooting down that plane. In fact that kind of action would have likely served to improve the situation in Syria, not worsen it.
You are absolutely right. Perdogan is a political corpse, although a politician he never was.
I guess what happens in Syria could be easily mirrored in Ukraine. If Turkey sends army into Syria to protect the Turkmen minority, both UN and especially NATO have to take an official stand on the issue. If they condemn it, then there is nothing stopping Russia from bombing the Turkish army. If they support it, then Putin can use every single argument they make in defense of Turkey, while sending troops to Donbass.
I think this is rather naive. When it comes to the policy of large states like USA, Russia, etc... double standards are a rule, rather than exception.
I'm not so sure that there is equivalency in this.
I didn't even mention Crimea. I mentioned South Ossetia. In both cases a foreign power launched a military action, without an approval of UN, against another country in order to support local separatist movements, which where fighting the central government. In both cases the population of the seceded provinces largely looked at the intervening forces with sympathies. In both cases, invading powers claimed that the invasion was launched in order to curtail the ethnic cleansing (although, there where obvious anterior motives).