RUSSIAN PRIORITIES:

“We will have to defend our interests so that the contracts which were signed under Saddam Hussein are not annulled as lacking legal force and to make sure the Iraqi debt owed us is respected,” he said.

Baghdad owes Moscow at least £4.5 billion in Soviet-era debt.

The request to expel diplomats and freeze Iraqi assets was “not made by accident,” Ivanov said.

“In this way, they are saying that everything before today was illegal, all contracts signed before are illegal, and legality begins with the arrival of a new administration, even a temporary one.”

He catches on pretty quick, though. Did these guys really think that there wouldn’t be a diplomatic price?