As analyst Mark Adomanis knows well, defending Russian foreign policy maneuvers on certain matters can be somewhat problematic.  However, he makes an interesting argument here in Forbes about Russian reluctance to support sanctions (as has been the case with Syria and is now the case with Sudan) and what this says about the Kremlin’s own conception of international diplomacy.  As he points out, if Russia were to support sanctions against oil-producing Sudan, disruption to supply would invariably have an effect (if small) on prices, which would of course in turn serve to benefit a country whose budget is largely buoyed up by energy exports.  This pattern was also perceptible in Russia’s gradualism with regards to sanctions against Libya, which came only five months after the UN Security Council had introduced theirs.  He explains what he considers this to indicate: