Russia announced today that it was going to go ahead with a sale of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran, which is, to be blunt, very bad news for the region. The S-300 is a highly sophisticated air defense system (i.e., it’s used against aircraft and cruise missiles) which, if placed by Iran’s nuclear facilities, would make a U.S. or Israeli attack on them vastly more difficult.

On the homepage, Tom Rogan notes that this is a sign of serious confidence on the part of Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Russia inked a contract to sell Iran the S-300 sometime between 2004 and 2008 or so, but held back on delivering them for years — not because the sale wasn’t legal, but because of significant private pressure from the U.S.

What’s changed? Probably a combination of things: Russia may now feel free to strengthen its relationship with Iran and flout U.S. wishes, the U.S. may have backed off on the pressure it was exerting to block the sale, or U.S. pressure just isn’t seen as intimidating as it was five or ten years ago. The Israeli defense minister calls the deal “a direct result of the legitimacy that Iran obtained from the emerging nuclear deal,” which might be an overstatement. But the sale was surely made more likely when the Iranian regime got a boost — in its finances and its international legitimacy — by the new temporary nuclear deal.

It’s possible Russia could still be persuaded to keep the missiles out of Iranian hands, that they’re just angling for some concessions from the U.S., but we’ll have to see.