A secret agreement between the US and Russia, signed in 1995 by Vice President Gore and then-Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, was revealed recently after being leaked to the press. The agreement granted Russia immunity from economic sanctions so long as it stopped selling weapons to Iran by the end of 1995. While the Clinton Administration said this Agreement would give it leverage over the Russians, it in fact had the opposite effect. The Russians felt they had been released from all other arms proliferation agreements by the guaranteed immunity from sanctions. US intelligence has reported that Russian companies have continued arms sales to Iran (without specific permission from Moscow, which makes little effort to stop them).--Stephen V Cole