Putin's gonna have a cow if Persia breaks away from Russia. But having had some Persian ex-pats as colleagues when I was still working, I could see it happening. The Persian people are a lot more secular than most Americans realize.
I've known some Persians in the past and they HATE the islamists.
They stated that they were Zoroastrians, NOT muslims.
There were several on FR, notably a fellow named Allen who fled after the fall of the Shah, all now passed away.
I knew many Iranians when was in college, and when I was in the Navy, I was going to A-School (jets) with scores of Iranians learning how to perform maintenance on their F-14s we were selling them.
I had generally liked and admired the Iranians I have known, even if there were a few who took on quite a different persona when the hostage crisis occurred, and were a-holes. But more than a few did not want to return to Iran after the Shah was betrayed, but they had no choice in the matter.
It has been a source of pain to me to see what a few generations there have become under that Islamic crap. I had a lot of hope for Iran at one time.
45-ish years and counting
we could have all retired if we got a dollar every time somebody posted on Free Republic that the Iran insurgency
Is jUsT aBoUt TO HaPPeN!
Or maybe these days $100 every time (Bidenflation)