US Assistance to Russia Funding Iranian Nukes

Back in August of last year I asked why are we still giving Russia about a billion dollars a year when they clearly have money to act as a rogue country. Since then their actions have continued to grow, such as bomber overflights of US Navy carriers and threats to start a new arms race, as well as once again threatening to point their missiles at Eastern Europe. (Notice how nobody bothers to ask where they have them pointed now.) All the while we continue to pay to clean up the nuclear messes of the Soviet Union.

Now there is news that our assistance money is reaching as far as Iran's nuclear program:

In the continuing US Congressional investigation of a post-Soviet programme to employ Russian nuclear weapons scientists to prevent them from selling their expertise, a congressional committee has said US Department of Energy (DOE) funding has assisted in building Iran’s Bushehr reactor. - Bellona

And, the following confirms a point I have made before, in that giving Russia money frees them up to use their own money to do things that are harmful to the US.

At the hearing last month on the anti-proliferation program, a State Department official, Richard Stratford, acknowledged that “you could argue if you give Russia a dollar for whatever purpose, it frees up a dollar that can then be spent elsewhere.” But he said the programme would reduce the risk of proliferation. - Bellona

This is what I said last year. The problem is that Russia is not going to clean up their mess with their own money. As far as I'm concerned, if they want their country littered with nuclear radiation, then so be it. Giving them a free pass may very likely result in a much larger mess later on as there is no incentive to be responsible. This is just like providing support to North Korea. Providing aid money provides a lifeline that keeps enemy regimes afloat where they might have collapsed otherwise.

We can thank President Clinton for the fact that we are dealing with North Korea problems at all. North Korea lost it's major aid provider when the Soviet Union collapsed. As a result, most of North Korea, including all of the factories spiraled into collapse. Then there was a severe drought that killed around a million North Koreans. With the country falling apart around them, North Korea managed negotiations with the US that resulted in aid in exchange for the North quitting it's nuclear program. In reality, they took the aid to keep the regime afloat, and continued on developing the weapon in secret.

South Korea also paid for the North's nukes as part of their 'Sunshine Policy.' Funny, that the 'sunshine' that the North is going to send back might be in the form of nuclear radiation. - FFI (Follow a chart summaring US Aid to North Korea which started in 1995 by President Clinton)

We all know how well paying North Korea to stop its nuke program worked out. When will we wake up and stop making the same mistakes over and over? What next, humanitarian aid to Hugo Chavez's Venezuela? You know, in order to help the 'people'.

Links:
When looking at the following two articles, one wonders if there who was plagerizing who:
US –Russian aid programme said to help finance Iran’s nuclear ambitions - Bellona
Energy Dept. Funding Institutes with Iranian Ties - NY Times

Previous:
US Assistance to Russia (2006) $949.3 Million - 15 Aug 07 - FFI
President Clinton, savior of North Korea? - 8 Oct 06 - FFI