Russia perplexes me. After all, they are a lot closer to Iran than we are and if there is one thing that the last 30 years has proved conclusively it’s that “making nice” to Muslims does not make you their friends.
Hell, Chechnya and the “black widows” should have made that quite clear. Iran and the “stans” are an Islamic dagger pointed right at Russia’s underbelly. Do they really want to give (or let those savages build) a nuclear-tipped sword?
Could be a bit of gamesmanship going on,, setting them up for a good clobbering... or ?
Russia is willing to “go goon” on the Slammies, and that gets them a bit more respect than punch-pulling America gets. Ultimately, however, they don’t have a very good answer to Islam itself. The Slammie reaction to the Bush war in Iraq seems to show that sometimes they will also respect someone who bids fair to take territory from Islam. But this reaction varies from place to place. Ahmedinajad probably doesn’t give a hoot if Iran is incinerated, if he can get in his missile for Allah first.