Four months ago, four Russian embassy staffers were kidnapped and killed in Iraq, as I discussed here. Putin reportedly ordered Russian special forces to "take all necessary measures to find and destroy" the killers. Checking back on things, there has been exactly zero news on this topic -- as there would have to be, if Russian special forces were actually at large in U.S.-occupied Iraq.
But the organization responsible for the murders, the Mujahidin Shura Council, was the same group that took to the streets in Ramadi earlier in October to declare the town part of a (Sunni) Islamic state within Iraq.
This suggests Russia has not been able to resolve this problem. Then again, the vigorous declaration up front may have been an end in itself.