Kremlin: Sanctions against Iran counterproductive

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A top Kremlin aide said Tuesday that sanctions against Iran could be counterproductive, but suggested Russia has not excluded the possibility of supporting them. "In introducing economic sanctions, it has to be understood that we and the whole world really can get something from Iran. At the same time, as we understand it, introducing economic sanctions or undertaking military operations, this likely would lead to the opposite result - the consolidation of the population around the current leadership," Igor Shuvalov, a senior aide to President Vladimir Putin, said at a briefing. Shuvalov, when asked whether Russia would consider supporting sanctions, said "Every possibility is present ... we are not closing the door on anything." Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has been reluctant to support the United States' call for sanctions against Iran for its resistance to calls for it to end uranium enrichment, which Western countries fear could lead to developing nuclear weapons.