THE SEAN HANNITY SHOW

Russia launches airstrikes against al-Assad's enemies Russia is at it again, this time conducting airstrikes against rebels who are challenging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested the bombings were "rumors that the targets of these strikes were not ISIS positions were groundless." According to some reports, yesterday's bombing in Syria "caught President Obama by surprise," though Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently did give Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu advanced warning. As Marco Rubio told me yesterday, Putin is a gangster and he's filling the void left by President Obama's unwillingness to do anything in Syria. President Obama has been vocal that Syrian President Assad needs to leave his post. Russian President Putin, however, has said that he supports the embattled Syrian leader. After yesterday's events, which one looks like the paper tiger? Rubio: Political class completely out of touch with country 2016 GOP presidential candidate, Senator Marco Rubio, joined Sean on 'Hannity' to discuss Putin's actions against Syria. "Putin's real goal is to protect Assad, keep Assad in power and increase his leverage in the region," Rubio explained. "And that's exactly what he's achieving by what he's done now over the last 48 hours, not just repositioning military assets within the territory of Syria, but also going to the United Nations and saying to the world that Russia under Vladimir Putin -- they're going to be the ones that lead the anti-ISIS coalition." People may not like Putin on the international stage or some of the things he's done, but he's seen as decisive and reliable, albeit in a way that perhaps is not in the interests of most of the world. Obama, Rubio explained, is viewed much differently. "Obama is seen as unreliable, skittish, afraid to engage, and not clear what he wants to do moving forward. And what Barack Obama does not fundamentally understand and has never understood that in the Middle East, in particular, weakness is an invitation for further aggression." You can watch Sean's entire interview with Marco Rubio here.