Call it like it is...GREED.
And...don't forget...nationalistic FEAR!
That's basically why Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution to denounce Syria's 11 months of massacres...more than 7,300 dead...and head-off a likely civil war.
Money...it seems...comes before blood.
Russia has contracts for $4 billion of arms with Syria.
China exports a lot to Damascus.
Also...the leaders of both nations...don't like the idea of outside interference...in their internal affairs.
Read...Chechnya for Russia...and Tibet for China.