Warum treibt Putin Teheran in Richtung Trumps Atomabkommen?

***From The Times:***

As an old ally of Iran, the Kremlin’s position has long been that the regime has the right to develop nuclear energy, while acknowledging that Tehran’s race for a bomb should be curtailed.

So reports this weekend that Russia is leaning on Iran to accept a deal that denies it the right to enrich uranium for any purpose have provoked a typically caustic response from Moscow.

Any suggestion that President Putin hoped to pressure Tehran into such a nuclear deal with the United States, said Russia’s foreign ministry on Sunday, was part of a “dirty, politicised campaign, which is being hatched with the aim of escalating tension around the Iranian nuclear programme”.

Moscow’s protests, however, may hide a more subtle approach than it wants to admit.

Sources familiar with the discussions told Axios that Putin had informed President Trump and Iranian officials that he supported the idea of a nuclear deal in which Iran is unable to enrich uranium.

So far, the Iranians appear to have rejected Putin’s overture, but the claims suggest that the Kremlin’s strategy on any nuclear deal is more nuanced than it is prepared to let on. Russia and Iran have a long-standing bond, and their forces cooperated for years in Syria in support of President Assad, before his regime collapsed in December