Kremlin Announces Sanctions Against Iran Officials

By ELI LAKE, Staff Reporter of the Sun
May 9, 2008

WASHINGTON — On the day Russia's powerful ex-president, Vladimir Putin, became its new prime minister, the country took a first step toward codifying the United Nations sanctions against Iran.

The Kremlin yesterday published a new ruling announcing sanctions and a travel ban against Iranian officials in keeping with the third U.N. Security Council resolution against the Islamic Republic, aimed at dissuading Iran from enriching uranium at Natanz.

The move could be significant if Russia's government follows through. Since the early 1990s, Russia has worked to rebuild an Iranian nuclear facility at Bushehr. At the same time, while Russian diplomats have voted with America, Britain, and France to sanction Iran at the U.N. Security Council, the Russians and Chinese have continued a weapons trade with Iran and worked to water down international resolutions against the country.

President Bush has counted on Russia, and in particular Mr. Putin, to stand with America and Europe at least diplomatically in opposition to Iran's defiance of the International Atomic Energy Agency. As a result, Mr. Bush is pressing Congress to approve a new compact with Russia aimed at enhancing cooperation on civilian nuclear energy.

A bipartisan letter circulating in the Senate this week is critical of the deal, demanding the State Department account for Russia's dealings with Iran.

Another concern for some lawmakers and the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Senator McCain, is that Russia's behavior in the region under Mr. Putin's leadership has become more aggressive. Russia's state-run gas monopoly, Gazprom, has cut off natural gas pipelines to Ukraine and Georgia in response to regional disputes. Mr. McCain has pledged to work to exclude the Russians from the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

Mr. Putin's handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, was sworn in as president on Wednesday and is expected to continue Mr. Putin's policies.

Moscow also yesterday announced the expulsion of two American diplomats from the American Embassy. The State Department confirmed the decision. "They have been asked to leave. We object to the action but will comply with the Russian government's request," a spokesman for the State Department said.

The decision is likely in response to the State Department's expulsion of Russian diplomats in April and November. The last such expulsions occurred in 2001, when the FBI tracked down Robert Hanssen, a lifelong FBI agent who began spying for the Soviet Union in 1981 and continued to do so for 20 years.