re: #29 faraway

Iran is Russia’s proxy.

Agree - especially in view of this:
Russian military a ‘paper tiger’ despite symbolic comeback, says IISS

I fear that Putin would like nothing better than letting the Mad Mullahs do maximum damgae to the USA and Israel while keeping clean hands. Also, his military command may not bee too keen to put themselves in the firing line.
So using Iran as proxy makes a huge amount of sense.