The biggest winner in Biden’s Iran deal may end up being Russia.
It looks like Biden did use Russia to negotiate with Iran because Russia appears to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Biden’s Iran deal. Not American companies, but Russian companies may make billions thanks to Biden’s insane work with Iran.
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air reported:
Who benefits most from Joe Biden’s obsessive pursuit of a renewed JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran? Tehran’s mullahs, obviously, as well as the IRGC when Biden orders them removed from the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. But coming in a close second will be Vladimir Putin and the Russian oligarchs that support him, as Adam Kredo outlines at the Washington Free Beacon this morning:
Several of Russia’s top state-controlled nuclear companies stand to gain billions of dollars in revenue as part of a new nuclear accord with Iran that will waive sanctions on these firms so that they can build up Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure, according to a U.S. government-authored document reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
Russia’s state-controlled Rosatom energy firm and at least four of its major subsidiaries will receive sanctions waivers under a new accord so that they can complete nuclear projects in Iran worth more than $10 billion, according to the 2019 document, which details all the Russian entities involved in these projects. …
With a new nuclear accord being finalized, the Biden administration has repeatedly guaranteed Russia that it will not face sanctions for its work on Iranian nuclear sites, even as Moscow faces a barrage of international penalties for its unprovoked war in Ukraine. Already, the Biden administration renewed a series of sanctions waivers to permit Russia’s nuclear work in Iran as part of a package of concessions meant to entice both countries into signing a new accord. These waivers were rescinded by the Trump administration in 2020 as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.
The removal of nuclear sanctions on Iran will hand Russia’s Rosatom a financial lifeline, even as the United States and European nations seek to isolate Moscow for its ongoing assault in Ukraine. Republicans and Democrats are sounding the alarm on these concessions, criticizing the Biden administration for undermining its own pressure campaign on Moscow to ensure that a nuclear deal is inked. Critics of the deal have in recent days seized on the carveouts for Russia following a series of Free Beacon reports outlining how sanctions relief would turn Iran into a “sanctions evasion hub” for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“Russian state-owned firms stand to gain billions of dollars under a revived Iran nuclear deal and would be exempted from U.S. sanctions,” said Andrea Stricker, a veteran nuclear proliferation expert who has closely tracked Iran’s program as a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. “Washington should be working to close every one of the Kremlin’s revenue streams, not letting Moscow enrich itself while it is committing mass atrocities.”
About The Author
