Russia lifts ban on Iran missile sale, starts oil-for-goods swap

Russia is taking the interim nuclear deal with Iran as a green light to start resuming business with Iran, Moscow acknowledged on Monday. First, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted a hold on the sale of advanced S-300 defensive missile systems to Tehran, put in place in 2010 by Putin's predecessor under pressure from the U.S. and Israel. The deal is worth about $800 million to Moscow, which is cash-strapped due to the sharp drop in oil prices and Ukraine-related sanctions. The missiles would make it riskier to bomb Iran.

Russian officials also tell Reuters that they have started trading grains and other goods for 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil, a swap that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov insists "is not banned or limited under the current sanctions regime." (The U.S. is looking into that claim.)

Moscow says that the opening of trade and missile sales to Iran won't jeopardize the U.S.-led Iran talks. In fact, "it was done in the spirit of good will in order to encourage progress in the talks," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Russian television. "We believe that the need for this kind of embargo, indeed a separate, voluntary Russian embargo, has completely disappeared." But Russian officials and analysts also freely admit that Moscow is also trying to set itself up for further trade with Iran if the talks are ratified in June.

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"If we now delay and leave Iran waiting, then tomorrow, when sanctions are fully lifted, Washington and its allies will get Iran's large market," Russian think-tank head Leonid Ivashov tells the RIA news agency. Ryabkov was more poetic: "It takes two to tango. We are ready to provide our services and I am sure they will be pretty advantageous compared to other countries."