Russia Stands to Gain Billions from a Revived Nuclear Deal with Iran

“The Biden administration,” notes Andrea Stricker, “has two goals that are at odds with each other.” It wishes to ramp up economic pressure on Moscow, and to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. That deal was an economic boon to Russia, enabling the Kremlin to undertake civil nuclear projects in the Islamic Republic worth billions of dollars. In 2019, the Trump administration announced that Russian entities would face sanctions for continued nuclear work in Iran; in February 2022, the Biden administration waived these sanctions. Stricker argues in favor of a swift “course correction.”