Over the years Saddam Hussein managed to create an image of a brutal dictator, executing political opposition and even members of other branches of Islam.

That's why it was difficult for the world to believe it when a bearded and shabby looking Saddam Hussein was found hiding in a small underground bunker near his hometown of Tikrit, just across the river from one of his former palaces.

An international court found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and the killing of 148 Shiites in the 1980s.

Surely severe crimes, however, not everyone agrees with the punishment he received.

“This was an absolutely barbaric and unprecedented act – first a country is invaded, its president is arrested, sued and then killed,” says Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the head of Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, who used to know Saddam Hussein personally. “There could have been other, perhaps, military solutions, but executing Saddam Hussein did not improve the situation in Iraq.”

Today, sectarian violence continues to rage in Iraq with over 4,000 civilians killed this year alone.

The total number of people who lost their lives since the U.S-led invasion began is still unknown; however, some sources say this figure could be nearing one million.

The head of Russia’s Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Leonid Ivashyov, remembers that “Iraq used to be a powerful Arab country and the US has managed to fully destroy it and take control of its natural resources. Iraq will never be stable again and will always be a source of conflicts in the region.”

US troops are expected to pull out by the end of 2011, passing full control to the Iraqi authorities, something the latter are doubtful of handling now or will be capable of in the future.