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On a tour to fortify alliances with key countries dealing with the threat of a nuclear Iran, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Russia attempting to line up votes for a toughened sanctions regime.

But in a apparent surprise, the Russians are again backpedaling from making direct statements as to what they would do should Iran fail to live up to its international obligations - as it has for years.

According to the New York Times:

Threatening Iran with harsh new sanctions to advance negotiations over its nuclear program would be “counterproductive,” Russia’s foreign minister said Tuesday, throwing cold water on the Obama administration’s hopes that Russia had been persuaded to cooperate with its effort to intensify the global pressure on Tehran.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow on Tuesday.

The minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said after meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton here that diplomacy should be given a chance to work, particularly after a meeting in Geneva this month in which the Iranian government said it would allow United Nations inspectors to visit a clandestine nuclear enrichment facility near the holy city of Qum.

“At the current stage, all forces should be thrown at supporting the negotiating process,” he said. “Threats, sanctions, and threats of pressure in the current situation, we are convinced, would be counterproductive.”

While Mr. Lavrov’s skepticism about sanctions is not new, his comments came just three weeks after President Obama canceled an antimissile defense system in Eastern Europe that Russia had strongly objected to, raising hopes of cooperation on Iran. Two weeks ago, President Dmitri A. Medvedev told President Obama that “in some cases, sanctions are inevitable.” Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who was in China on a trade mission Tuesday and missed Mrs. Clinton, has spoken out against using punitive measures against Tehran.

Here's, via the AP, is Clinton offering to bring key Russian military personnel into the U.S.' most sensitive nuclear weapons control center - the mother of all confidence building measures.

In what appears to be a major concession, Iran agreed in yesterday's high level talks in Geneva to export its enriched Uranium stores - the critical base component of any nuclear weapon - to Russia for processing.

According to the New York Times:

Iran agreed on Thursday in talks with the United States and other major powers to open its newly revealed uranium enrichment plant near Qum to international inspection in the next two weeks and to send most of its openly declared enriched uranium outside Iran to be turned into fuel for a small reactor that produces medical isotopes, senior American and other Western officials said.

Iran’s agreement in principle to export most of its enriched uranium for processing — if it happens — would represent a major accomplishment for the West, reducing Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon quickly and buying more time for negotiations to bear fruit.

This move is not being seen as a victory yet.  The Times goes on to report:

But despite the relatively promising outcome, the Obama administration was at pains to strike a cautious tone, given Iran’s history of duplicity, its crackdown on its own people after the tainted June presidential elections and President Obama’s concern about being perceived as naïve or susceptible to a policy of Iranian delays.

Mr. Obama, speaking in Washington, called the talks “constructive,” but warned Tehran that he was prepared to move quickly to more stringent sanctions if negotiations over Iran’s nuclear ambitions dragged on.

Here's President Obama at the White House giving his reaction to the negotiation:

According to a new report by the European Union, Georgia fired the first shot in its war with Russia last year.

This information contradicts the U.S. position during the waning days of the Bush Administration that Russia was the aggressor.

A full version of the EU's report will be made available later today.

Here's a news report on the EU's findings: