we saw that...

russians say a war with iran is completely unacceptable

dmitry babich, russia profile magazine

"a war in iran is absolutely unacceptable for russia and russia will do everything to prevent that possibility. on the other hand russia is also afraid of iran getting close to acquiring nuclear weapons.

so obviously russia's position oscillates between these two dangers and that explains russia's attitude. yesterday russia criticized tehran for some of its very critical statements about russia and today russia criticized the eu for its punitive sanctions.

what russia wants is iran at peace with europe, with russia and with possibly all the other countries of the world."

mr. babich, doesnt think that russia will comply with the u.s. and the e.u.'s unilateral sanctions says "russia has no obligation before the united states or the european union to follow their policies on iran.

russia has its own position on iran and russia wants to see iran as a peaceful state and as a reliable economic partner because as you know there are all sorts of informal bans on russia's exports to the e.u. countries and to the united states.

so iran is a very important economic partner for russia and in that sense russia will not support sanctions which can cripple iranian economy."

russia did support the sanctions from the u.n. when asked whats the difference? mr. babich commented: "well it's clear that the u.n. sanctions were dictated by the information received from the international atomic energy agency ... as far as the american sanctions often they are guided by political considerations.

it's clear that iran is demonized in the united states; it's presented as an existential threat to israel and it's given many other bad names and obviously it would be very unwise for russia to follow american policy on iran.

but russia on the other hand as a responsible member of the united nations and the international community as a whole, russia can not disregard the opinion of the united nations and in that sense russia just complied with the decision of the majority at the u.n. security council.

russia and china will not allow themselves to be pressured on iran. russia and possibly china will only take measures if they see that iran is indeed close to acquiring a nuclear weapon.

unless that becomes clear russia and china will not do anything against iran and russia and china will do business with iran.

thats just about as much as it is clear from the statements of both president medvedev and prime minister putin and other russian politicians."