Earlier this week, Putin made a visit to Iran, following directly upon a visit to Germany.  Both were "summits" with the countries' respective leaders.

One of Putin's main concerns when in Germany was the Iran situation and, particularly, where the Germans stood with respect to the Americans and the whole Iranian nuke dispute.  The other, raised by Merkel, was construction of a major pipeline in the Baltic region.  To supply the rest of Europe.

The other day, before arriving in Iran, Putin made quite clear in a public statement that the Americans had better not use the territory of states formerly part of the Soviet Union as a base or jumpiung off point for any attack on Iran.

And, Putin also made a statement, though not quite as clear, to the effect that Russia had commercial interests in Iran which the West must respect.

Of course, when Bushie was growing up (in years like 1980, a year he said yesterday he cannot remember) the big threat that was going to nuke America in a bolt out of the blue was, um, Soviet Russia.  Last anyone looked, they still have lots of nukes, on missiles and bombers (the same model that they just started flying on long patrols) and subs.

Of course, from Putin's perspective, his reconquest for the Russian government of control over the Russian oil and gas reserves is likely to be a much more effective and usable lever to bend and twist the West and America to meet and embrace the Russian will.  Around the turn of the year, we can expect another round of gas shutoffs to W. Europe as Putin on the one hand and Ukraine and Belarus haggle over transit fees and such (the pipelines run through their territory).  It happens every year.

The USG Open Source Center translates from Russian the joint statement of President Putin and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Highlights include a joint call for a timetable to be set for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq; Russian investment in the Iranian energy sector (which the US opposes and says it would punish by boycotts); further consultations between Iran and the Shanghai Cooperation Council; and a peaceable resolution of the dispute over Iran's nuclear energy research program.

13. Russia and Iran advocate the development of equal and constructive cooperation between member and observer states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on matters of mutual interest.

juan Cole

China and Russia are stepping up to the plate. We will see what a wimp the bully becomes when it is not just a small country with  no air power or substantial denfenses to repel US forces.

Let us hope that Putin will not read anything of great importance into the caterwauling of the Left and will not be encouraged to be more of a problem than he has been.

Enter George W. Bush. He had the best chance to patch up relations after 9-11 and he blew it. The U.S. and Iran both opposed the Taliban and Iran believed Bush and Cheney, as ex-oilmen, would lift sanctions. Unknown to many, the U.S. and Iran held secret, one-on-one high-level talks in Paris and Geneva from the fall of 2001 through May 2003, talks led on the U.S. side by Ryan Crocker and Zalmay Khalilzad.

In early May 2003, through Swiss intermediaries, the Iranians also presented an offer for comprehensive negotiations (reprinted in the annex to my book). Bush, full of hubris over Iraq, did not even give the Iranians the courtesy of a reply. The Europe talks ended, meanwhile, after yours truly wrote about them on the front page of USA TODAY and al-Qaeda bombings took place in Saudi Arabia that the White House said were linked to al-Qaeda detainees in Iran.

The Iranians did not give up, however. In late 2005 and through the spring of 2006, Ali Larijani, their new national security adviser, sought backchannel talks with Steve Hadley. Larijani went so far as to publicly accept a prior U.S. offer of talks on Iraq in March 2006. Supreme leader Khamenei publicly endorsed the talks, something he had never done before. Again, Bush sawed off the limb. The upshot: Larijani was weakened, Khamenei humiliated and Iran accelerated its nuclear program and its intervention in Iraq.

There is much more, including an intelligence assessment in early 2003 that invading Iraq would spur the two members of the Axis of Evil with real nuclear programs -- Iran and North Korea -- to intensify their efforts. Also the fact that the White House did not even ask the intelligence community for an assessment of the regional impact of toppling Saddam before invading.

It simply assumed that all would go well and that Tehran would be the next evildoer to fall. Instead of dividing our enemies by negotiating with Iran, the Bush administration has united them. And now -- like the child who shot his parents and complains he's an orphan -- the White House blames Iran for taking advantage of the strategic opportunities the United States has provided.

It's useful though quite troubling to be reminded that our current problems with Iran were entirely self-inflicted by this administration.