If Russia thought that Australia had a bad leader and were developing nuclear weapons, would Russia have the right to wipe Australia off the planet without UN's allowance?
hehe. I suppose if Vladamir Putin thought a country of 500 million sheep, 200 million cattle, 18 million people, 50,000 cattledogs, 40,000 pubs (including the pub with no beer), a navy with about 20 warships, a gun battery under the Sydney Harbour Bridge with 8 '32 pounders' and two sentries outside the Victoria Barracks is a threat to Russia then I suppose he would try and attack us. But then again it would be well documented that John Howard is hardly a terrorist, any more than Vladamir Putin is.
The thing that does have me worried is the possibility that the crisis could escalate into a global conflict. Some countries (inluding allied nations) do oppose the US stance strongly enough for it to be a possibility. Having said that, I doubt the US or anyone else will or would involve nuclear weapons. The cost in terms of the existance of the human race depends on the hope that all nations will remain on the backfoot in this respect. A nuclear war would be won by no-one and lost by all 6 billion of us.