The inevitable, it has happened:
President Vladimir Putin has eased an export ban on nuclear equipment and technology to Iran, a Kremlin decree published on Monday showed, after Tehran struck a deal with world powers on its nuclear program in July.
The decree, issued on the same day as Putin arrived in Iran on an official visit, said Russian firms were now authorized to export hardware and to provide financial and technical advice to help Iran with three specific tasks.
They were listed as helping it modify two cascades at its Fordow uranium enrichment plant, supporting Iranian efforts to export enriched uranium in exchange for raw uranium supplies, and helping Iran modernize its Arak heavy water reactor.
It’s a shame we don’t have a robust inspections regime to verify that Iran and Russia are sticking to the terms of the agreement, but the Obama Administration was more interested in getting a deal than in waiting for a good deal. But when you have a President who thinks that warning “Don’t call my bluff” is a smart negotiating ploy, these things are bound to happen.
Meanwhile, the Kyiv Post reports that about a dozen Russian tanks “have come close to the contact line between Crimea and mainland Ukraine.”
Putin’s been a busy little beaver, while Professor Ditherton Wiggleroom preoccupies himself with stern lectures and not much else.
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