BUSH, PUTIN AND IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

I can't figure Vladimir Putin out. One minute he seems like a throwback to the bad old days of the Cold War and the KGB, the next he's making nice and getting back on the right team. According to StratFor, Putin has led Russia back to Bush's arms regarding the Iranian nuclear program:

The construction of Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor, built with Russian assistance, is nearing its final stages. Tehran has agreed to return spent fuel rods from the reactor back to Russia for reprocessing rather than doing so in Iran, where it might have been able to extract plutonium for possible use in a program to build weapons of mass destruction.

Russian aid is key to the Iranian nuclear program, since Russia is one of the few countries that will assist Iran, which was labeled part of the "axis of evil" by U.S. President George W. Bush. However, both countries have been under extreme pressure for Iran to return the used fuel rods, and Moscow -- aggressively lobbied by the Bush administration -- threatened to squash the deal should Iran refuse.

StratFor notes that Iran is still pursuing its own local sources of fissile material--namely, uranium, in its own mines--and the US is trying to put a stop to that. But the work with Russia seems to have paid off, and Iran will be sending its plutonium rods back to the former USSR for reprocessing.

Another win for Bush, it seems. And a smart move by Putin.