Nobody. Who would want to mess with the Russians, and on their own soil? The Russian military is not the Libyans.

But why?

They have oil and gas in plentiful supplies :03:

They also have teeth and claws and a grim temper.

Precisely :yep:

You also speak from experience me thinks :03:

The West should've "intervened" and helped establish actual democracy back in the early 90s instead of celebrating their Cold War victory and the misery of their former enemy. Not intervene in the sense of bombing, of course, but in terms of welcoming Russia to the international community and helping get the economy and political processes back on track. Instead they rooted for a corrupt Yeltsin regime while providing little actual cooperation. Too late for that now. IMO while accusing "America" of causing trouble is ludicrous, Western Russophobia and reluctance to engage productively with a 'new Russia' in the 90s does have its share of blame in the state of affairs now.

Otherwise, there's also the historical experience. There was a Western intervention during the Civil War... didn't go very far either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_...sian_Civil_War

The West did "intervene in Russia. It'S entrepreneurs and predator capitalists went to Russia, helped the oligarchs and the organised crime to power, tried to get as much gold as possible filled in its pockets, and left in ruins what Yeltzin was not willing to defend.

It was a disaster for Russia. ;)

The later course by Putin was to tackle these oligarchs and ban them from corrupting the state even more. To some degree, the West has to face a causal responsibility for Putin's course in the early years of his reign.

The NATO made several priomises to Russia and gave them verbal guarantees in which teh Russians trusyted, namely on Eastrern expansion, just to betray them later and to break practically all these promises, did not really prove to be helpful in restoring Russian trust.

Yeltzin was a disaster for Russia. Okay, he played his role at the White House coup. But that was all, as I see it.

Well, and therein lies the problem - he played his role in the White House coup, and that was perhaps the thing that messed up Russia most for years to come. His handling of it did more damage to Russian politics than anything since. By putting it down violently and forcing a constitution that has made every branch of government except the executive irrelevant, he paved the way for Putin & co. The current elections are just another reminder of the fact that parliamentary politics only matter as far as "sending a signal" to the president, or foretelling future support. But the only office in the land that actually matters is the president's, and we have Yeltsin to thank for that.

Reports now have it that protest could be well over 40,000... Now that would be a sight to see.. I hope this does not hamper my plans to visit st pete this summer....