Looks like there may be a reason that the U.S. and NATO are backing off from pressuring Russia’s recent brutal crushing of Georgia. From Globalsecurity.org:

Russia may proceed with plans to sell advanced S-300 air defense systems to Iran under a secret contract believed to have been signed in 2005, a Russian analyst said on Monday.

Commenting on an article in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper saying Russia is using the plans as a bargaining chip in its standoff with America, Ruslan Pukhov, director of Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said: “In the current situation, when the U.S. and the West in general are stubbornly gearing toward a confrontation with Russia after the events in South Ossetia, the implementation of a lucrative contract on the deliveries of S-300 [air defense systems] to Iran looks like a logical step.”

This, combined with Syria’s desire for Russian weapons systems might be “cooling off” animosity from NATO, the US and the WTO. From the BBC article:

Moscow and Damascus are reportedly preparing deals on anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems, as well as surface-to-surface Iskander missiles.

This could also be a case of “oneupsmanship” on the part of Russia in retaliation for the U.S. backed Missile shield being installed in Poland.

Since the US media isn’t even touching this story, stay tuned for more interesting developments…