Not so. Putin is in fact facilitating Iran's accession to the nuclear weapons club by effectively shielding it from UNSC action. (http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=1976) Keeping the flames of the Iran nuclear crisis at an appropriate level, and the oil prices high, also greatly benefits Russia, which is using the money, characteristically, to beef up it's military, not it's public health or mass transit systems. Other than that, Russia seems to have returned to it's Soviet days "negative-harmful presence" posture, when it did everything it could to hurt Western interests everywhere, and supported/ initiated every possible terrorist and dictatorial development with money, weapons and training. The turn of the Bear's wrist on the natural gas pipeline's faucet to the West-leaning Ukraine two months ago was enough of a statement to prove that the Cold War is back, bigtime, and in the shape of a nationalist Russia- communist China axis this time around. For those still skeptical of this, watch out for Russian arms shipments, not only to Iran and Syria, but also to North Korea.

Shirrush is a smart guy. He's absolutely right. We should all pay attention :)

But they lost last time around. Haven't they heard about how insanity means doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results? It's too bad a nation's foreign policy doesn't have to undergo a lunacy hearing.

Russia is not to happy with Iranian nukes, considering their Chechnian problems. In the past Russia & Iran have had some tangoes for oil with Iran usually trumping Russia. Russia is shielding Iran for other purpose-not for its right to have nukes. An out of control Iran is dangerous for Russia too.

"But they lost last time around". Exactly. And now the same people want revenge. Nothing is sweeter than to have revenge while turning large profits at the same time. Putin is every bit the KGB officer and most of the apparatus he has set up is made of ex-KGB people, and of course of active FSB spooks. The police state is thus being reinstated in pretty conspicuous stages, but business-adverse communism is probably not going to be allowed to make a comeback in Russia, unless it can still be contrived into a passing disguise for kleptocratic statism. One of the steps that should be taken would be to systematically, and loudly, expose the collusion between the child-murdering Mullahs and the Drozdovs' mafia, so as to make sure that the not-quite-muzzled-yet Russian people knows how it is being betrayed with the most murderously dedicated of it's historical enemies, and that the immense resources of post-Islamic Iran of tomorrow are forever lost to the evil, perfidious Shoorevis. I'm quite convinced that the Drozdovs are going to lose again. What worries me is the damage they'll do to both Russia and the West, until this happens.

By "Drozdovs' mafia", do you mean the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs?

Shirrush is a smart person indeed, but doesnt hit target right now I believe. Russia has not set up a new cold war, no, the driving force for Russia when talking about Middle-East and Asia is money. They want to sell arms, technology, whatever and want to have flourishing trade relations with those nations. Nuclear armed Iran is not good for them, but its the money that matters and I believe that Russian offer was honest, but the mullahs wont take it because it would make making nuclear weapons impossible... When talking about Ukraine, it´s completely another case: Ukraina is part of their back yard and former colony... It´s power game that is going on there: whether Ukraina, Belarus and others turn towards the West or towards Russia. They don´t want to give up their influence [check Venezuela and US attitude for comparison, its not SO much different]

Right, it's about money. Apart from some interesting (and tasty!) new developments in the F&B sector, that did attract some foreign investment AFAIK, most of Russia's exports of manufactured products are still weapons and various deadly pieces of hardware. (Yes, MANUFACTURED. I know they export lots of oil, gas, prostitutes, multi-resistant mycobacteria, crooks and refugees as well.) Since we can see the effects of these weapons everyday, on our own people, in our own hospitals and with our own eyes, and since this has been going on relentlessly ever since the closing days of WW2 and the inception of the komintern anti-Western warfare arrangements, I suppose that now is the time to pillory Russia for it, and make it pay SOMETHING for the endless rows of graves that the export policies of it's state-owned industries have forced us to dig. By the way, the USN, the RN, the RAN, the IN, and the Gulf Arab navies will have an interesting time keeping the Straits of Hormuz open after the Twelfth Imam crawls up his hole from Hell and shows up in Qom: the Russians, or the Ukrainians, have apparently made sure that the Mullahs get their own OEM version of the Shkvall, and boy, aren't they flouting it! http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060402/D8GNVVG02.html

Actually, Shirrush, the solution to the Shkval is simply to sink anything that can carry it. A strongly worded message to Putin might help, too. Nothing like, "Gee, Vlad, can you NOT supply the fanatics on your border?" and more like, "Say, Vlad, do you realize that you import food from the West? What would happen if that suddenly, well...ended?" We need to prove we can play hardball, too. Putin's being short-sighted. He apparently chooses not to realize that a nuclear-armed Iran is a lot closer to him than they are to us...and they still refer to Russia as the Lesser Satan. (I think. The mullahs change their fatwas like I change underwear. Matter of fact, the resemblance doesn't end there.)

Ideology is needed for a new cold war. Arms exports aren´t enough to make it happen; those who buy Russian weapons do it mainly because of two reasons: they cannot get, or don´t want US weapons - and nations that fill either or both of those, tend to be more or less hostile [or potentially hostile] towards USA without any Russian idelogical commitment. At the moment Russian arms industry is essentially dependent on exports to survive, that´s why they even endanger their OWN future by selling certain stuff and technology [China... ]