tony, Russia is run by the old KGB gaurd. And they've always got the bigger picture in mind. It's possible they're just using us to gain some semblance of reasonable authority to assert themselves with a foothold in the region - maybe they're not comfortable with us being so close and want to be able to counter any US base with a Russian base.
Besides, the whole point of this part of the forum is opinion and conjecture. Otherwise, we'd post a story, and just respond: "oh." and it would be "TechiIMOh"