Although the Russians didn't join the US invasion of Iraq, they have been working behind the scenes in Iraq for a while. You may remember that during the invasion, there was an issue where the US accidentally shot on a caravan of Russian diplomats (out of curiousity, at the time I went to Al Jazeera's site, and their article about the incident was "here's proof that the Russians are trying to evacuate Saddam").

Former KGB officer President Putin has ordered the Russian secret service to destroy (his words) terrorists that killed four Russian diplomats in Iraq recently. Yes, this is the same Putin that President Bush said was trustworthy because Bush had looked into his soul. It's also the same secret service that ended a terrorist occupation of a Moscow theater by gassing everyone in it (and identifying and shooting the unconscious terrorists). And it's the same secret service that handled the Beslan school occupation.

I'm curious how the Iraqi invasion would have played out if Russian soldiers had been part of coalition forces. But having Russia, and Russia's reputation, work behind the scenes is probably just as valuable.