Because the US has clearly stated it wants Assad out of Syria, and Russia has clearly stated it wants Assad to remain. And nobody gets away with telling the US how it's going to be when it comes to oil supply.
Is the implication that oil supply has much to do with Syria? I understand Russian natgas companies have some pipelines that traverse the country into Turkey and their eventual customers and Europe, but I'm failing to see what that has to do with oil and the US. The US gets most of its oil from Canada.
Yes, it would be more apt to just admit the feds consider that their playground and don't want someone else playing there. (probably the US fed people doing it want 'democracy' and the Russia people doing it want 'stability' but the exact ideology is unimportant since neither is really acting in accordance with that ideology so much as just stirring the pot)
Yep, could be a great opportunity to study the attackers by fronting each plant with a honeypot whilst making sure the real systems are air-gapped and require a two people with physical keys to insert a USB stick into the one system that has them.
I knew before clicking that there would be a baseless nod to *Bear attribution in this article, and it certainly didn't disappoint.