These terrorists/insurgents in Iraq must be very stupid. Now they're poking at the heretofore sleeping Russian Bear by kidnapping four diplomats and killing a fifth. I guess they hadn't heard:

Putin said he was "satisfied with the level and quality" of U.S.— Russian relations. "In combating terrorism, "we are more than partners," he told a group of media executives from the Group of Eight nations at a dinner at his suburban residence.

As a sign of Russia's strategic opposition to terrorism, he said,

"In some areas terrorists thought we would feed terrorism as the United States did in Afghanistan against the Soviets and as the Soviet Union did in Vietnam against the Americans."

But he said,

"Our relations are so mature that we are not rolling back" on the Russian partnership with the United States.

Joseph Crowley   6 3 06