When the UN Security Council unanimously approved the Iran nuclear deal on Monday, Russia paid tribute with an enthusiastic invitation to the West to co-operate on other fronts. “We would like this invaluable experience of joint actions, which is not burdened with geopolitical calculations, to be used for resolving other crisis situations where success can only be reached through co-operation,” said Vitaly Churkin, Moscow’s UN ambassador. “Russia is ready for that.” But even before the ink was dry, Moscow was already invoking the Iran talks to serve its own strategic purposes. Most notably, Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, argued that with Iran’s nuclear programme under control, there was now no longer a case to be made for the US to deploy missile defence systems in Europe.