YOU SAY POTATO….

Still, not all of the differences between Moscow and Washington could be easily finessed. On “Meet the Press,” Sergei Ivanov dismissed the assertion that Russia was assisting Iran in developing nuclear weapons, calling it “a myth supported for many years by Israel.” Russia, he insisted, never supported Iran with nuclear or missile technologies and was only involved in the construction of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant. Just two days later, CIA Director George J. Tenet said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee that Moscow was supporting Tehran’s program to build long-range ballistic missiles and aiding “practically all aspects” of its nuclear program. That same day, the Russian defense minister’s namesake and cabinet colleague, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, insisted there was no evidence that another member of the Axis of Evil–Iraq–was developing weapons of mass destruction. While the foreign minister urged Baghdad to permit the return of United Nations weapons inspectors, he also declared that Russia was against “any attack on any country bypassing the United Nations Security Council.”