Reference: : https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/397899
History has a way of repeating itself. The current Russia/Iran relationship is no different than the von Ribbentrop/Molotov agreement between the USSR and Nazi Germany.
Right now it might suit both countries, but they, like their predecessors, are not natural allies.
IF, and that is a very BIG IF, Iran survives, in time it will turn on Russia as Germany turned on the USSR. Iran’s medieval mad mullahs have unbounded primitive Islamic ambitions to rule the world, so why should Russia not be in their sights?
Within Russia there remain nine Muslim republics: Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Dagestan, Adygeya, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Northern Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia, with a population of more than 20 million Muslims. The Russian Federation includes 21 republics. Nine Islamic republics is a huge slice of Russia and can easily be worked up and incited as we have seen with Islamic populations elsewhere. Putin is playing with a Trojan Horse.
Iran will begin to foment trouble amongst them in the usual Islamically motivated way. I repeat, don’t for one minute ignore Iran’s Shi’ite Islamic driven ambition to rule the world and Islam.
Ironically, if Israel does attack Iran and, through doing so, opens an opportunity for the ordinary Iranians to overthrow the Ayatollahs and their IRGC protective thugs, it will not only save the Middle East and the world, it will save Russia as well.
Putin should think and calibrate his thinking and actions very carefully. He is rapidly heading towards consequential results, the outcomes of which he cannot control and is therefore dangerously playing with Pandora’s Box. Actually, with Islam and especially the medieval religiously motivated and self-righteous Ayatollahs, the consequences are obvious. I suspect, in his ruthless arrogance, Putin thinks he can put down any Islamic uprising as he has already done in Chechnya and repeat the brutal and merciless taking out of the Islamists holding people hostage in a theatre in Moscow.
Ironically, once Putin, a USSR and KGB anachronistic leftover, is no more, Russia’s real future lies in allying with Europe and the West and not China - and definitely not with Iran. Right now Putin is still playing old Soviet games and trying to resurrect its old ambitions and empire. To what end in reality, except perhaps his ego?
Russia’s best economic and other interests lie with Europe. Russia was the last feudal state well into the 20th century and is still economically and industrially backward and far behind the West, Sputniks and rockets/missiles aside. Russia, as large as it is, has been described as a country that is essentially a petrol/gas station and nothing much else.
If Putin were wise, he would ally and work with Europe and the West and build his country up industrially and economically. That would leave a real legacy. Right now he will be a footnote in history.
Russia’s nuclear weapons aside, it is obvious to all just how incompetent its army is. Vast number of soldiers have been lost fighting Ukraine, a fact which Putin doesn’t seem to care about - and if he does for political reasons, it might explain his importing foreign troops from North Korea and the Middle East as his own population might be growing restive.
The once fearsome Russia needs to buy drones and missiles from Iran? Russia needs to import and use foreign troops from North Korea and the Middle East?
Russia cannot industrially or financially compete with the West. Putin seeks his relevance in mischief, threats and trouble making, often for their own sake. Russia under Putin is wasting its resources, treasure and blood, and is punching above its weight, more than it appears on the surface.
David Hersch is Chairman of SAIPAC, the South African Israel Public Affairs Committee. Former chairman of the South African Zionist Federation (Cape Council) as well as a former national vice-chairman of the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF). He is also former member of the South Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape Council). Retired businessman and broadcaster.