Out of the many, many interesting quotes we got from Vice President Joe Biden during his famously candid Wall Street Journal interview (which sounded like it was done in a cocktail lounge), was the following appraisal of the United States believes that Russia must feel about the possibility of Iran becoming armed with nuclear weapons:  “I can see Putin sitting in Moscow saying, ‘Jesus Christ, Iran gets the nuclear weapon, who goes first?’ Moscow, not Washington.”

Logically and rationally, of course Biden is correct here.  Russia and Iran may be enjoying a brief honeymoon in their relations, but over history there are still some serious unresolved conflicts, involving everything from regional political disputes, pan-Islamic anger over Chechnya policy, potential competition in the energy field (Tehran is a Gazprom monopoly killer laying in wait), disagreements over imbalances within the SCO, and frustrations over the on-again, off-again teasing with the Bushehr civilian nuclear energy facility and the delivery of Tor-M1s and S300 systems.  All this plus the fact that for every additional country which goes nuclear, Russia’s international influence vis-a-vis its weapons holdings decreases.  We’ve even seen a few omens of what could happen,  hundreds of protestors in the streets have begun shouting a new slogan:  “Death to Russia.”