Even if one doesn't buy into the idea of a loose alliance existing between Russia, China and Iran to take advantage of a weak US president and slowly put in motion events and structures that will unwind, diminish American power and quite possibly in a rather significant way - even if one doesn't buy into this theory and accepts that those three are just acting in service of their own interests and any overlap of technique and benefits is strictly coincidental - don't Putin's actions in Ukraine make an 'alliance' a de facto thing regardless of intentionality? Doesn't China now look at the benefit of Putin screwing up things in the Mideast and Europe for the US and see this as a huge net gain for them viz balance of power, especially if one believes in the sincerity of Obama's putative Asia pivot [which I don't, but whatever]? Likewise, doesn't Putin now see if he didn't before [and I certainly believe he did] that if things really do start to get nasty between Russia and the EU/US that having an energy hungry behemoth with a permanent seat on the Security Council in his corner is a rather nice bit of leverage? And it certainly doesn't take a genius to figure out that if those two see Iran as an important cog in these various machinations then Persia's ambitions get a significant boost. This may not have started out as an informal alliance between Russia, China and Iran but it's very hard to see how it doesn't now perforce become one.
