Tigerhawk:

The Financial Times is reporting that China has edged off its policy of opposing new economic sanctions against Iran.

China has for the first time indicated clear support for a new package of United Nations sanctions against Iran, breaking months of deadlock inside the UN security council over how to respond to Tehran’s nuclear programme.

In a move that will boost expectations in western capitals that a new UN sanctions resolution could be agreed within weeks, Beijing signalled over the weekend that it was prepared to back measures that will hit Iran’s banking and business sector, while also prohibiting more senior Iranians from travelling abroad.

What made China move “over the weekend”? I did some free association on the treadmill this morning, and the oxygen deprivation made me wonder whether China might be increasingly worried about Russia. Last week, if you recall, Russia released fuel for Iran’s heavy water reactor, which drove some speculation from Stratfor and others that Russia had decided that a nuclear Iran was less troubling than a United States undistracted by Iran. Then, last night I absentmindedly watched the CNN special report “Czar Putin,” which puts the Vladinator’s huge domestic popularity into a larger picture of surging Russian nationalism.