This new trend in Russian politics on Iran, if it is not just a blip, can best be explained by the impending attack on Iran. Russia, in that case, does not want to be left a loser whose pro-Iranian opinion was disregarded by the world community.

The Russian then proceeded to meet the Fatah chieftain.

It seems that Netanyahu has accepted Russia’s involvement in Israeli-Palestinian affairs as the price for Russian permission for an Israeli attack on Iran. For years, the Russians have sought a bigger role in the peace process, but were rebuffed even by the left-wing Israeli prime ministers.

Of course, the Russians remain true to their decades-long policy: the more conflicts are out there, the better it is for them. Whether Iran develops nukes and upsets the region, or the United States attacks Iran and also upsets the region, the Russians will be equally happy.

In the meantime, the Russians have filed a complaint in the UNSC against Germany for intercepting nuclear-related equipment en route to the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

The sanctions cannot prevent Iran’s nuclearization, but China and other countries have significantly reduced their imports of Iranian oil, which further strains the embattled Iranian economy.

Diplomatic efforts bore no fruit, and the Russian Transaero flight was grounded in Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. At that point, the Russians agreed to exchange the aircraft.

Enough data has emerged since then to prove our suspicions. The plane allegedly fell from 6-8 meters, but its parts were spread over vast territory. Three quarters of the bodies were recognizable only by DNA tests, though crashes usually leave bodies relatively intact. That’s an explosion, not a crash landing.

Four shots are clearly heard on the black box recorders. The Russian claim that the guards’ firearms went off is nonsense: the shooting took place before the crash.

The Polish plane was equipped with TAWS-A avionics, which would have warned the pilot 500 feet from the surface. There is no way a TAWS-equipped plane can hit a forest by mistake. TAWS-A configuration would also warn pilots of a significant deviation from the runway, making it impossible for them to miss the glideslope by so much.

There is no doubt that the Poles were murdered.

The crash is a happy accident for Putin: the Poles were flying to Smolensk, a town in West Russia, to commemorate the Russian massacre of Polish POWs. The absence of high-level Russian officials at the planned commemoration shows how controversial was the affair.

The Polish plane attempted to land in fog and missed the airport. Such a wide miss with 1,200 feet of visibility would be odd in itself, but there is more: eyewitnesses report that the plane descended to below 15 feet (tree level) a mile from the airport, which would not have been possible if the airport’s navigational equipment had been functioning correctly.

According to new information, the female suicide bomber was accompanied by a male. The Russians allegedly saw it on street cameras. One is left to wonder why they did not see the man initially, since they identified the bomber also on their cameras. Singling out a face in a crowd, recorded with primitive equipment, is all but impossible, anyway.

The alleged bomber, a religious Islamic girl who lived with her parents, is now claimed to have been married not once, but twice, the first time to an Al Qaeda representative.

And now it has become clear why she was singled out: her family is active in Mothers of Dagestan, an antiwar movement highly critical of indiscriminate Russian military operations, and therefore hated by the establishment.

In previous bombings, Russian security services framed Muslims in order to start a war, but this time a war in Chechnya is unlikely. Russia’s president has declared the need to differentiate between “gangsters” and Muslim civilians. The later, therefore, are not to be attacked as they were a decade ago, when Russian troops killed some 10% of Chechnya’s civilian population—exposing an attitude slightly different from Russian concerns over the slight Arab fatalities in Gaza during Israeli anti-terrorist operations.

Medvedev called for abandoning due process for those accused of terrorism, and for undisclosed changes to Russia’s already harsh criminal law. He lashed out against the courts, which allegedly acquit terrorist suspects through bribes—an unthinkable affair for Russian judges, who are subservient to the government. Medvedev thus hinted to the judges that any acquittals would be presumed to have been won by bribery.

The Russian president also called for “still more cruel” measures against “gangsters” (compare that to the nice treatment of Palestinian terrorists Russia urges on Israel). The Russian Ministry of the Internal and FSB troops already employ collective punishment and indiscriminate raids against the alleged supporters of Chechen separatists. Larger raids will come close to a war.

As is common for Russian leaders, Medvedev heavily loaded his speech with threats and obscenities, and twisted statistics. He claimed that there were 104 ‘terrorist explosions” in Chechnya last year, which were actually Chechen guerrilla operations against Russian police troops and their supporters.

Obama offered US cooperation in bringing to justice those responsible for the attack. Either he was speaking plain nonsense, or he was concerned about the possibility of another Russian war in Chechnya and offering to mediate, or the terrorists were not Chechen after all.

The bombing operation was not well-coordinated, as the second bomber detonated herself 45 minutes after the first one. Had the Russian police boosted security measures at other train stations immediately, the second bomber could well have been caught.

The Moscow bombing comes on the heels of the November railroad bombing, which took 26 lives. At the time, Russian officials downplayed the terrorist threat.

During the economic crisis, Russia cannot afford a major war in Chechnya, but neither can Putin afford to abandon his image as a tough fellow. It will be interesting to see if Russia can stop Chechen terrorism and Chechnya’s national liberation movement by its common barbaric measures.

Muslim terrorism is unlikely to set Russia’s ruling establishment at odds with Arab countries. Rather, security cooperation between Russia and Muslim regimes will increase.

With everyone pushing Israel, perhaps it is time for Israel to offer to mediate between Russia and Japan on the return of the occupied Kuril Islands.

That way, Russia accused the West of not giving in to the Iranian scheme. Iran sought to receive enriched uranium from the West before exporting  its own stocks.

The Russians are rightly concerned with Hamas’ power, rather than its legitimacy.

The event went sour when the Russian government hinted that the conference wouldn’t take place. Naturally, the regime that did away with the major jewish oligarchs is not happy with muscle-flexing by the surviving second-tiers.

The conference will be moved to Jerusalem, but now many oligarchs will skip it to avoid incurring Putin’s displeasure.

The T-50 is reportedly a re-engineered version of the American F/A-22. While puritans might decry the Russian habit of stealing foreign designs from the Kalashnikoff to the T-50, this is a cost-effective policy.

It will probably take at least five years for the Russians to introduce the first squadrons of T-50s, about the same time as would be required for F/A-22 delivery to Israel. The T-50 is rumored to be offered for export at $50 to 70 million, which would be a quarter to half the price of the F/A-22. Certainly, Russia will be more forthcoming than the US administration in allowing Jews to install our own avionics into the jets. Spending a few billion for Russian jets will do more to stop S-300 sales to iran and S-400 to Syria than any diplomatic pressure.

As usual, the Russian copy will be less reliable than the American original and will have the engine problems that plague Sukhoi’s currently manufactured models, but they are suprasuffcient for any of IAF’s operations against Muslims.

One need not worry over such statements. He just seeks to please his clients. Besides, Rosoboronexport has a personal quarrel with the US, which imposed sanctions on it specifically to limit weapons sales to Iran. So he is teasing the Americans.

Though there are no legal impediments to S-300 sales, American pressure so far has effectively prevented Russia from delivering the SAM batteries to Iran.

The Russian president was reportedly instrumental in releasing Mrs. Belfer. No similar concessions were obtained from Russia, which has jailed scores of Israelis, including the notorious guerrilla instructor Colonel Klein.

The Russians are sensitive to their 800,000 non-Jewish compatriots who reside in Israel.