Good point. I still say that one of these days Russia is going to pay a heavy price for backing Islamic nations.
If Russia thinks Iran won’t sell it out at the drop of a ruble, I think they’re dead wrong.
Russia stands an even chance with the U.S. of being the target of Iran’s nukes when they are fully functional.
I guess they don’t remember Belsan very well.
Duh. Beslan - just like 99.99% of jihadi terror attacks are done by Saudi-sponsored Sunni terrorists... the arch enemy of Iran.
As Russia is largely hostile to the strategic aims of Sunni Turkey and Sunni Saudis, working together with Iran is for Russia only logical. The Chechen terrorists were funded largely by Saudis.
And no... Iran won’t lob nukes into Russia or the US. This anti-Iran hyperbole and hysteria is getting ridiculous... while a blind eye is being turned to the real terrorist menace of Sunni jihadism.
If they Russians are trying to work the long game they’ve got to do something to even out the numbers between them and their only true continental adversary which would be China.
That the Chinese would waste a significant amount of blood and treasure over archipelago properties when they have an area that’s equal to their size to the north and west that’s essentially unpopulated by their standards seems irrational. They have more single fighting age males who have zero chance of ever landing a member of the opposite sex (due to 1 child) than the entire population of Russia. The only real question is how to acquire that territory without a heavy nuclear exchange.
Russia probably sees strategically positive value in nuclear armed Islamic states as a buffer to China, along with the added manpower being tied to a state like Germany would bring if they ended up having to project much of their land forces to the Far East.
Focus on the west, aside from it as a Cold War and WWII grudge carryover, doesn’t make much sense from a logical standpoint, but then again, we are dealing with people...