UPDATED:  See Below 

Filed under From Russia With Love.

From the AP:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Saturday the Islamic republic had reached a “basic deal” with the Kremlin to form a joint uranium enrichment venture on Russian territory, state-run television reported.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, “spoke of a basic agreement between Iran and Russia to set up a joint uranium enrichment firm on Russian soil,” Iranian state television reported.

It remained unclear, though, whether Iran would entirely give up enrichment at home, a top demand of the West, or whether the joint venture would complement Iran’s existing enrichment program. Enriched uranium can be used to fuel nuclear reactors that generate electricity or to make atomic bombs.

Scary.

UPDATE:

Even more scary is the fact that Russia is now acting as Iran’s big brother on the Nuclear playground:

Russia Warns Against Threatening Iran

A top Kremlin diplomat warned against threatening Iran with sanctions or the use of force, saying that would only aggravate the international standoff over Tehran’s suspect nuclear program, Russian media reports said Saturday.

Rather than getting Iran to stop uranium enrichment, a tougher stance could result in Tehran’s total refusal to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, said Oleg Ozerov, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry’s Middle East and North Africa Department, according to ITAR-Tass.

Considering they have a deal to help the enrichment, this is not a surprise.

"We firmly stand today for resolving the problems in and around Tehran diplomatically rather than militarily. Increasing international pressure on Iran has no prospects," Ozerov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

…

The Iranian regime insists the program has only the peaceful purpose of generating electricity. Russia, which has close ties with Iran and is building that nation’s first nuclear power plant, opposes sanctions.

Russia is clearly working to support its own self interest, which is not a shock.  We do the same quite often.

But their self interest is also threatened by having a loose cannon like Iran capable of the big bomb.

The report added that Ozerov also warned Iran against making belligerent statements.

Moscow has been frustrated by Tehran’s uncooperative attitude, and ITAR-Tass said Ozerov expressed regret over the failure to reach a final agreement with Iran on a compromise proposal to have the Iranian uranium enrichment program operate on Russian territory.

The two nations announced a "basic agreement" in February on implementing the plan, which would allow closer international monitoring of Iranian enrichment program - which can produce both fuel for power-generating nuclear reactors and the core material for atomic bombs.

And I would also note that if Russia sees this deal as a way to make Iran behave and stay under control, they are not paying attention:

Iranian officials already undercut the intent of Russia’s plan by insisting that they would continue some enrichment work at home.

Whether they are just trying to help or not, which my cynical side rejects, Russia, in my opinion, is making a bad situation worse.