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Russia's chief of domestic intelligence has reported to President Medvedev that a bomb was the cause of the deadly train wreck that left 25 people dead and more than 100 injured. If Russia ever required evidence that it needs to be on our side in curbing terrorism, and in blocking the aspirations of nations that sponsor it, this should be it.
Chief among those who support the activities of terrorists and revolutionaries is Iran, who, through both tangible and intangible means empowers those who seek to use violence to change the political face of the Islamic world. Meanwhile, Iran has resisted all American attempts to strip it of its nuclear capability and just last week was censured by the International Atomic Energy Agency. But this is nothing new, since the United Nations has been singularly unsuccessful in stopping Iran from its relentless quest, and Russia has been the country most resistant to these efforts.
There are several reasons why Russia has been an reluctant to put the squeeze on Iran, but two are most prominent.
For years, Moscow has had strong economic ties to Teheran, and there are numerous joint-venture arrangements in the energy industry that bind the countries together. As south and east Asian nations have embarked on rapid development, their appetite for fossil fuels has soared, making the immediate future for Russso-Iranian ventures bright and motivating Russia to do nothing to imperil them.
In addition, for the last two decades Russia has viewed America as expansionist and has been reluctant to do anything we ask for fear of empowering us further. We have absorbed most of the former Soviet satellites into NATO, have worked hard to emplace anti-missile systems in eastern Europe, and have insinuated ourselves into southwest Asia---all of which scare an already paranoid Russia.
To Russian leadership---whose operational characteristics have not changed very much in the last several centuries---it matters less that it faces Muslim revolutionaries inside its own border than it faces what it perceives to be challenges from the United States. And so it is not surprising that every American attempt to enlist Moscow's support to de-claw Iran has met with failure. Russia has been advising restraint for years, and the result has been that the Iranian threat has been growing. In the UN's Security Council, Russia can veto meaningful action against sponsors of terrorism, and it has done so time and time again.
Occasionally it takes a shocking catastrophe to change a nation's outlook, and perhaps this train explosion is that event. But don't count on it. If history is any indication, most countries are reactive and usually do nothing until it's too late for anything but extreme, destabilizing and destructive measures.
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We have travel treaties with nearly every country in the world, and if we ask that specific people not be boarded on US-bound vessels of any kind, these people will be denied at the port of embarkation.
