La visite de Poutine \u00e0 T\u00e9h\u00e9ran, pour une r\u00e9union des pays de la Caspienne, a montr\u00e9 combien la Russie domine aujourd’hui la crise iranienne (voir notre F&C<\/em> du 19 septembre<\/a>). Poutine ma\u00eetrise parfaitement le jeu de la Russie. Cette expression est employ\u00e9e ici comme une analogie de l’expression le jeu de la France employ\u00e9e par Philippe de Saint-Robert pour d\u00e9crire la diplomatie gaulliste; elle montre combien c’est la Russie qui a aujourd’hui une diplomatie gaullienne, pas la France qui pr\u00e9f\u00e8re l’inspiration nourrie aux cocktails de Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e8s de son ministre des affaires \u00e9trang\u00e8res.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tPoutine a d\u00e9clar\u00e9 nettement qu’une op\u00e9ration militaire contre l’Iran \u00e9tait inacceptable. L’avertissement s’adresse aussi bien aux USA qu’\u00e0 l’Azerbaidjan (un des pays pr\u00e9sent \u00e0 la r\u00e9union), consult\u00e9 par les USA pour une \u00e9ventuelle aide logistique en cas d’attaque. De plus, Poutine invite Ahmadinejab \u00e0 Moscou. Selon le Guardian<\/em> d’aujourd’hui<\/a>:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abRussia’s president, Vladimir Putin, gave Iran’s leaders a public morale boost in their nuclear dispute with the west yesterday by issuing a veiled warning to the US not to resort to military strikes over the issue.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbMr Putin used a historic visit to Tehran – the first by a Kremlin leader since Stalin in 1943 to amplify his opposition to an American attack against Iran. We should not even think of making use of force in this region, he told a five-nation summit meeting of Caspian Sea nations.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbIn a coup for Tehran’s leadership, he invited the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Moscow for talks. Mr Putin called on the five countries Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Russia and Iran not to allow an outside power to use their territories to launch an attack on another member of the group.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbWe are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state, Mr Putin said.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abHis comments backed up by a post-summit communique appeared to be aimed at Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic which has a partnership deal with Nato. It has been touted as a potential launching pad for US strikes against Iran after American military commanders inspected its airfields.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tPour autant, Poutine ne s’aligne pas sur T\u00e9h\u00e9ran, \u00e9videmment non. Il y a les int\u00e9r\u00eats de la Russie et l’attention port\u00e9e \u00e0 l’\u00e9quilibre des situations. Poutine ne soutient certainement pas l’intention suppos\u00e9e, et jusqu’ici non prouv\u00e9e, de l’Iran de devenir un pays militairement nucl\u00e9aire. Un commentaire de Simon Tisdall dans le m\u00eame Guardian<\/em> d’aujourd’hui<\/a> met en \u00e9vidence la diversit\u00e9 des relations russo-iraniennes et, \u00e0 cette lumi\u00e8re, l’habilet\u00e9 du jeu de la Russie conduit par Poutine. La comparaison que Tisdall fait entre Poutine et Disraeli vaut, de la part d’un Britannique, son pesant d’admiration dissimul\u00e9e. Cela nous change un peu des sempiternelles r\u00e9f\u00e9rences \u00e0 Staline des hyst\u00e9riques occidentaux lorsqu’il s’agit du Russe.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abMr Putin’s approach to Iran, underpinned as ever by Russia’s greater strength, is more canny. He insisted recently that there was no evidence that Iran was developing an atomic weapon. He has cast himself as a Disraeli-style honest broker in the nuclear dispute with the US. He gave another warning yesterday of the unacceptability of military action. And he knows his Tehran sojourn again demonstrates Russia’s reviving central role in global affairs.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbAll the same, Mr Putin is hardly falling over himself to help Iran become a nuclear-armed state, if that is what Tehran is trying to do. Completion of the Bushehr project has been repeatedly put back. Nuclear fuel deliveries from Russia have been withheld. Moscow has infuriated Tehran by claiming not to have been paid.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n