What is Putin up to? and why is he aligned with Iran in this?

Putin just made it a state secret any Russian soldiers who die in Ukraine (or anywhere else).

Russia, with Putin but also as the Soviet Union has been aligned with Iran since at least the Shah of Iran left power around 1980. So, when the U.S. lost influence in Iran, the Soviet Union took over.

Also, Putin and Russians in general hate Sunnis mostly because of Chechen Sunnis and before that during the Soviet Union Sunnis in various Soviet States were ungovernable and were one of the many reasons for the breakup of the Soviet Union. So, you see this playing out now in Syria which is Alawite Shia Governed by Assad, even though only 15% of the Syrian people are Alawite Shia and 85% are Sunnis.

So, from the stand Russia and Iran have made, in reaction to this eventually came ISIS which is a Sunni Reaction to all Shias.

Often Western News sources don't talk enough about how ISIS' main mission is to exterminate all Shias on earth (all 165 million of them) and secondarily only to exterminate Christians and all other non Sunni based religious folks and all secular folks too.

But, it is easy to say one of the primary causes of ISIS is IRan and Russia. Some people believe IRan created ISIS on purpose. I don't believe that.

However, both Iran and Russia in various ways have benefited from ISIS' existence. This part is true in the sense of ISIS causing just so much murder, mayhem, human trafficking, suffering and beheading that whatever Russia and Iran are doing seems not as bad in comparison to ISIS.

What is ISIS doing in the Middle EAST?

I would say the best answer to this is that they are killing literally everyone eventually who is not Sunni Muslim wherever they go.

So in this sense they are depopulating the middle east wherever they go of all Christians, Shias and all other minorities which have existed there likely the last 2000 years or more in various locations in the Middle East.

So, what is Putin up to?

With ISIS as a smoke screen for both Iran and Russia there is likely no limit to what Putin and Iran are up to now not only in the middle east but anywhere on earth.