America, Syria and the UN - This is what foreign-policy success looks like

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2. Russia's Syria veto at UN to 'protect' Putin, opponent says

Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution against Syria because Prime Minister Vladimir Putin fears he'll be the next strongman to fall, one of the country's opposition leaders said Wednesday.

"He believes that Gadhafi was in the past, Mubarak, now Assad, and next it will be Putin. That’s why to protect Assad means to protect himself," Boris Nemtsov said at a news conference in Ottawa, referring to former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.

Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister who's leading Russia's democratic opposition to Putin, said Russia is going against the Middle East with its UN Security Council veto.

Last weekend, Russia and China vetoed a resolution to endorse the Arab League's plan to transfer power from Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Nemtsov said the veto was to help protect Putin from future action by the rest of the world.

"This is not about strategy, no strategy at all. This is how to protect himself."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/02/08/pol-russia-election-boris-nemtsov.html?cmp=rss

Of course, this could just be campaign talk.