[Rearden]

Putin wants the simmer to continue in the Middle East. Enabling the Iranians is helpful. They, in turn, enable other trouble-makers in the region. I don't know if Russia would want the simmer to boil over into a war between Iran and the US -- if Iraq AND Iran became friendly US allies, that wouldn't be in Russia's interest.

I do believe that Putin is a very rational man and everything Russia is doing is calculated to be in their best strategic interest. It's better to be a thorn to the West than to be a weak ally that the West takes for granted and kicks around (like we did in the 1990s).