Free Republic

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran is fully legal and transparent, Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev insisted ahead of talks Friday with top U.S. arms control diplomat John Bolton. "We keep to international law, our actions are fully legal and transparent for the International Atomic Energy Agency, and they have no complaints against us," Rumyantsev said as quoted by the Interfax news agency. Rumyantsev is due to travel to Iran next month to discuss speeding up the construction of a nuclear plant at Bushehr, in the south of the country, a project Russia continues despite Washington's objections....

MOSCOW, April 22 (AFP) - Russia is concerned that Iran may be enriching uranium with a view to developing nuclear weapons, Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said on Tuesday, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency. Rumyantsev referred to US press reports that Tehran had equipped a nuclear complex with the capacity to enrich its recently-disclosed uranium deposits, sparking fears that the country may be stepping up a covert weapons program. "Such centrifuges are capable of enriching uranium to a high enough concentration for developing weapons," he said. "If the media reports are accurate, the situation is alarming." "Iran must acknowledge...

Iran, another member of the "axis of evil," continues to get military aid from Russia, our supposed ally in the war on terrorism. A December 26th New York Times story reported: "Iran and Russia signed an agreement today to speed up the completion of a nuclear power plant that the United States fears could help Iran build nuclear weapons....They also agreedto set up a commission to examine building another one, and Russia said that for the next 10 years it would provide fuel for the reactor at Bushire in southern Iran." The pact was completed during a four-day visit to...