Putin believes the future belongs to the economic, financial and technological moguls outside government and energy drives the world's real powerhouses. The Russian prime minister seeks a place in the new supranational elite.

Moscow wants to get rid of the ME roadmap, Tony Blair and outdated peace tracks. Most of all, Russia seeks to unseat America as exclusive top dog in the region. A multilateral Middle East conference taking place in Moscow in February is designed to do just that.

Moscow has not only accepted the West's conviction that Iran is aiming for a nuclear bomb, but is ready for the ultimate penalty of an air and sea blockade against Tehran. Washington is looking behind Russia's change of face for ulterior motives.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev were persuaded by the betrayal of 10 Russian sleeper agents in America and the capture of the Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout that the time had come to reform Russia's spy agencies.

Moscow has used the Bushehr nuclear reactor to showcase its nuclear wares. Egypt is lining up with Gulf emirates for Russian nuclear reactors like Iran's as its ties with Washington weaken and Iran's nuclear weapons program contiues to forge ahead - albeit with unforeseen holdups. 

Information reaching the West indicates Iran has put to death atomic scientists and technicians suspected of helping plant the Stuxnet virus in its nuclear program. The admission by Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization, on Friday, Oct. 8 - the frankest yet by any Iranian official - that Western espionage had successfully penetrated its nuclear program is seen as bearing out those reports. The Iranian program is further slowed by extreme security.

The pact confronts the Russian military with the first test of its ability to handle advanced Western technology. The Kremlin will have to show whether it is willing to cooperate in this field with the United States, which overseas the pact.

Gen. Yuri Ivanov, 52, deputy head of GRU, the Russian military's overseas intelligence arm of Russian military, was found dead in mysterious circumstances described in a terse official Russian eulogy as a tragic swimming accident "several days ago." No further details were provided such as where he died. Although he apparently drowned off the shore of Syrian Latakia, his body was recovered from Turkish waters ten days after he went missing.

When the Russian President Demitry Medvedev said Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear weapons capacity, he was not disapproving, but argued that it was not a violation of its international underatkings.. He expects the forthcoming nuclear dialogue next month to take Iranian uranium enrichment as a given and ...

Moscow and Tehran have announced that the nuclear reactor Russia is building Iran at Bushehr has completed all its test-runs and will be up and running in early September - ahead of schedule.
debkafile's military sources have repeatedly reported that the Iranian reactor at Bushehr is not just a power plant but also has military applications. Chief among them is the reuse of its fuel rods to produce plutonium as atomic weapon fuel. 

Moscow opts for a collision course with Obama by accepting the lead of an anti-American grouping of Turkey, Syria, Qatar and Iran and their allies, Hizballah and Hamas and nuclear negotiations with Iran at America's expense.

Moscow is negotiating for Israeli robotics technology for building its own UAV fleet while also developing its military ties with Iran and Syria. Its bargaining chip is the S-300 missile interceptor for Iran.

Russia will pool its military and intelligence resources with the US to fight the war on terror together - only if its own battle against Islamist extremism is recognized as part of the global war on terror.

Al Qaeda, long entrenched in the Caucasian, is boosting local Islamic extremist groups and separatist movements with fighters from Yemen. While terrorist mastermind Doku Umarov is Moscow's Enemy No. 1, the Kremlin's man in Grozny Ramzan Kadyrov is not as trustworthy as he was.

Libyan defense minister Younis Jaber arrived in Moscow Tuesday, Jan. 26 to sign a $2 billion military acquisitions deal that makes his country the first in the Middle East to obtain the top-of-the-line S-300 PMU-2 interceptors. Russia is still withholding this key shield for its nuclear sites from Iran, which is why Tehran cancelled the Moscow visit of ...