..............."However, what about the case for Russian development and deployment? The Russians don’t support an Iranian indigenous nuclear capability. Their calculus is that their companies’ profit margins will benefit as long as the Iranians keep Russian scientists and engineers in country, who can oversee Iranian nuclear progress. Using its unique insights, Russia then plays a Byzantine game of delay and diplomacy. Delaying a program on technical grounds can’t go on indefinitely. At the same time, their involvement in the nuclear program is leverage in Russo-American negotiations.
Then there’s so-called nuclear gangsterism that was rampant in Chechnya and other breakaway regions over the past two decades. In 1995, for example, Chechen rebels planted a “dirty bomb” in Moscow’s Izmailovsky Park. Today, nuclear material is much more secure in Russia thanks to Russo-American cooperation. But should Iran develop a full-blown nuclear capability, Russian national security would be put at risk as Chechen or other violent-Islamic extremist and nationalist rebels look to Iran’s version of nuclear entrepreneur AQ Kahn to gain access to nuclear technology. Keeping access to Iran’s nuclear program, while keeping the Iranians far from the capacity to “break out” into full nuclear material production, is the balancing act Russia must play."
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