It now sounds as if when Russian President Vladmir Putin looked into Iranian leaders’ eyes he had the same degree of accuracy in getting a sense of their souls as President George Bush had looking into his:
Iran is secretly training Chechen rebels in sophisticated terror techniques to enable them to carry out more effective attacks against Russian forces, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Teams of Chechen fighters are being trained at the Revolutionary Guards’ Imam Ali training camp, located close to Tajrish Square in Teheran, according to Western intelligence reports.
In addition to receiving training in the latest terror techniques, the Chechen volunteers undergo ideological and political instruction by hardline Iranian mullahs at Qom.
The disclosure that Iran is training Chechen rebels will not go down well in Moscow, which regards itself as a close ally of the Iranian regime.
Indeed, Putin has been one of the most steadfastly consistent defenders of the Iranian regime…in fact, actually, regimes…since he has backed whomever has been in power there. More recently, the Telegraph article goes on to explain:
Russia has sided with Iran in the diplomatic stand-off over Teheran’s controversial nuclear programme.
While the British and American governments have accused Iran of having a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, the Russians, who are building Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, back Teheran’s claim that their nuclear intentions are solely peaceful.
Of course, Russia’s participation in the nuclear power plant project has nothing to do with that support. AND:
Moscow has offered a face-saving formula to prevent Iran from being reported to the United Nations Security Council for its failure to co-operate fully with UN nuclear inspection teams.
So now what does Russia have? It’s getting big bux to help build a power plant and is siding with Iran on the world stage as the issue of its nuclear plans — and authentic intentions — comes into play.
It has sided with Iranian governments, this one in the middle of a major power struggle. On Saturday Iran’s hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blasted countries that question how Iran plans to use its nuclear power.
So while Putin sticks by Russia, Tehran is apparently sticking it to Putin…who will likely face the consquences of his across-the-boards policy of “enabling” in the form of bloody attacks on his people.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.