By "Neutral" They mean they will be selling there best stuff to the Iranians until the bombing starts!
"Russia will maintain neutrality"
Neutral like the Swiss handling the gold from teeth and jewelry from murdered Jews in WWII?
Fortunatly this would be their best stuff - not good enough stuff.
The problem will not be to win airspace or to defeat their heavy arms.
People won't die because of Thor M1 but because of Semtex, .50 sniper rifles and RPGs.
So this is good news actually. Russia gets some Money, Iran get's some targets and the US- Airforce, Navy and Army get's some practice.
The real problem will be - what do you do once your in ? What's the next step in the escalation. How much cash can we litteraly burn there without having the chineese and the russians up our backs. Can we convince the mullahs to go away and the 'normal people' to get used to freedom and applepie ?
Hu Jinto told Bush today that he would be neutral in any Iranian conflict. But Hu keeps selling Iran weapons, just like Putin does.