Opinion Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaks with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani during a video conference call, dedicated to the conflict in Syria, in Moscow, Russia July 1, 2020. Photo: Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS. Two separate, high-stakes showdowns have played out in recent months on the world stage: the first concerns the Iranian nuclear program, while the second is between Russia and the United States and European countries concerning Ukraine. In the showdown over the Iranian nuclear program, Tehran has been pushing hard against US and European demands to return to last decade’s nuclear agreement (the...