Russian President Vladimir Putin knows how to find opportunity in crisis, and the metastasizing Iran war is the latest case in point.
Putin began the year projecting confidence about his campaign to subjugate Ukraine, despite incremental progress on the battlefield. But in early January, the Trump administration dealt a blow to Russia’s prestige with the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a strategic partner of Moscow, in a daring commando raid.
And when the new war erupted in the Gulf region, Putin initially looked to be a loser: US-Israeli decapitation strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, another longtime ally of Russia, and decimated Iranian military targets. The…