Russia has a long memory. We furnished the weapons in Afghanistan that neutralized their helicopters and helped send them home in defeat. I don't find it surprising that they are again meddling in our conflicts. They have a history of doing just that since WW2. Also remember the Russian convoy that traveled to Syria just ahead of our troops during the invasion. What were they carrying? They, like the French, aren't our friends.
Early on in WOT, a joint operation of weapons development by France and Russia were proposing to sell to China. That got halted by VP Cheney and SecDef Rumsfeld. Russia had the greater investment in the weapons development (as France had put more funds into the joint Russia/France Space Development Programs), and obviously, they sold to terrorists, instead.
This ain't an example of capitalism despite how liberals try to spin it.
You are probably right in that regard, as well as the fact that the world's leftists' viewpoint (Russia included) is that Bush is a new imperial leader who wants do dominate the world as they always desired to. Of course, the reasons for the conflict to begin with are long forgotten by all. I hate to see it happen, but this situation will hopefully give the military a chance to see the best stuff out there and build counteractive measures.
This is World War IV, and the vacuum created by the present turbulence is likely to continue to be powerful. We're in it, we truly had no choice due to the Saddam weapons programs we were aware of already, and we either play our cards at that table, or let the bad guys fight us here.