Russia's Arms

It would seem that Russia continues to rise to the forefront of the news.

Putin seeks to expand energy and military ties with Iraq, reviving Soviet-era relationship

Vladimir Putin is seeking to reestablish ties with Iraq:

"We see the development of trade and economic relations and the deepening of political dialogue as our contribution to the process of speeding up Iraq's return to peaceful life," Putin said after the talks.

Of course, PM Nouri al-Maliki is game to play along. He needs his country rebuilt and besides, Russia has the largest international oil company in Iraq.

‘Al-Maliki said during the negotiations that Iraq is willing to develop military and security co-operation with Russia, which supplied billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saddam Hussein.'

Al-Maliki told the Interfax news agency that Iraq may buy more than $4 billion of weapons from Russia, including helicopter gunships and air defense missiles.

"Iraq has had Soviet weapons, and it has highly-skilled experts who know how to use them," Interfax quoted al-Maliki as saying. "That's why we are interested in getting weapons from Russia’."

I found the most interesting line under the photo caption of the two men; ‘Putin hosted the Iraqi Prime Minister for talks, hoping to take ties to a new level amid agreement between Moscow and Baghdad over the conflict in Syria.’ (More on this in another posting)

The next news story, more chilling:

Russia says it will not renew arms agreement with U.S.

"The basis of the program is an agreement of 1991 which, by virtue of the time when it was conceived, the way it was worked out and prepared, does not meet very high standards. The agreement doesn't satisfy us, especially considering new realities," Interfax quoted him [Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov] as saying.

The arms deal, which was based on both countries deactivating nuclear and chemical weapons, is due to expire in 2013.

‘Ryabkov said that Russia now had the finances to carry out its own programs and that Moscow was interested in continuing partnerships in third countries.’

Translation: We tire of America and her toothless complaining. We want to seek bigger and stronger partners such as Iran and Iraq.

American diplomats appear to be trying to downplay this turn of events, saying that they are just looking to ‘amend’ the arms agreement.

One last little piece:

Russia: use of force against Iran would spell end of talks

‘Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Wednesday that the use of force against Tehran would spell the end of the negotiating process on Iran’s nuclear program.’

I include this last one because I thought it was striking that Russia was speaking on behalf of Iran.

All in all, it seems like Russia keeps marching toward its inevitable prophetic future role.