Trump's Iran stall may be a favor to Putin: expert

President Donald Trump's two-week timeline to decide on striking Iranian targets could be a favor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a foreign policy expert.

John Erath, senior policy director for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told The Kyiv Independent on Friday that nuclear cooperation between Russia and Iran gave Iran an opportunity to experiment with the technology. Russia built the Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2007 and has since agreed to build eight more reactors in the country.

While the nuclear power plant does not produce weapons-grade enriched uranium, it does help support Russia's economy, which has suffered greatly since Russia's war in Ukraine began in 2022.

"They want to show cooperation with Russia," Erath told The Kyiv Independent. "The nuclear power sector is something that's important to the Russian government. It's one of the areas that they export that has high value, that the Russians still are exporting, profiting from, when the rest of their economy is in big trouble."

On Thursday, Putin announced an agreement with Israel to protect the safety of 200 scientists working at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. Those specialists were working on behalf of Russia's state energy company, Rosatom.

Anna Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute focusing on Russia's policy toward the Middle East, told The Kyiv Independent that strikes on Iranian nuclear power plants in particular are personal for Russia because Russia helped finance their construction. Nuclear power also ties the two countries together outside of dodging sanctions, selling arms, and being at war with the West, The Kyiv Independent reported.

The announcement comes as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues to escalate. Israel attacked sites in western Iran on Friday as Iran's foreign minister met with European counterparts to discuss ending the conflict. Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has warned of a nuclear disaster if Israel strikes Iran's Bushehr plant.