Has Russia just destroyed Obama’s chances of adopting sanctions to stop Iran’s nuclear programme?
Anyone who has followed developments in Russia over the last few years had to be sceptical that the Obama administration’s decision to scrap missile defence facilities in central and eastern Europe would really yield the hoped for response from Moscow in securing meaningful sanctions against Iran. Appeasement would never work, we all said. Isn’t it blindingly obvious that the people who run modern Russia see themselves as locked in a zero sum, geo-political game with America and the wider West? Didn’t Obama understand that Moscow sees the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran as negative for the United States but neutral or positive for Russia? Still, there was always that nagging sensation of doubt. Surely, given the stakes, Obama would not humiliate staunch American allies like the Czechs and the Poles without a cast iron commitment from Russia to shift its position on Iran. Surely the Russians had been persuaded that they must now come into line allowing the prospect of serious sanctions
