Option 1: Cut Off All U.S. Assistance

Proponents Say: Cut Off All U.S. Assistance to and Support for Russia Unless It Ends Sensitive Exports to Iran.

• U.S. financial assistance to Russia amounts to tens of billions of dollars every year. This assistance includes U.S. support for loans and debt forgiveness at international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. The United States also supports cooperative threat reduction and nonproliferation programs in Russia, and pays for the purchase of Russian equipment and services for the International Space Station. In addition, the United States has agreed to allow U.S. commercial satellites to be launched into orbit on Russian rockets, providing significant profits for Russia's aerospace industry.
• Without this assistance, the Russian economy might be gravely weakened and could possibly collapse.
• Russian support for Iran's missile and nuclear programs is creating one of the most serious military threats confronting the United States and its allies in the Middle East.
• To meet this threat, the United States will have to spend many billions of additional dollars to maintain U.S. forces in the region and to develop offsetting capabilities, including costly defenses against Iranian long-range missiles.

Opponents Say: Cutting Off U.S. Assistance to Russia Would Not Curtail Proliferation of Sensitive Materials.

• As dangerous as the Iranian threat may be, economic collapse and political turmoil in Russia would pose a still greater danger in view of that country's large nuclear arsenal and vast stocks of poorly secured WMD and fissile materials.
• Cutting off all aid to Russia could thus have dire consequences. Option 2 and Option 3 are much better approaches.
• Even if Iran did not acquire long-range missiles or additional WMD, it would still pose a serious regional threat that the United States would have to address. Moreover, U.S. military forces are needed in the region to contain Iraq.
• Iran is only one reason for the United States to develop missile defenses. Even if the Iranian threat eased, the defenses would still be needed to address threats from North Korea, Libya, and potentially, Iraq.

Further Reading:

	Hearing of Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Ballistic Missile Threats to the U.S.
	Senate Hearing, "Has the Russian Space Launch Quota Achieved its Purpose?"
	CRS, Marcia S. Smith, "Space Launch Vehicles: Government Activities, Commercial Competition, and Satellite Export"
	Clayton Mowry, "U.S. Bilateral Space Launch Trade Agreements"
	Wade Boese, "Putin Reaffirms Arms Sales, Nuclear Assistance to Iran"
	Arms Control Association, "Russian Arms and Technology Transfers to Iran: Policy Challenges for the United States"
	WMD 411, Policy Options: The United States and the Middle East

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