The Sadrist Trend bloc in Iraq’s parliament appears to be moving toward a more open position on trainers inside Iraq in 2012. This change comes with a major caveat, as it seems anyone but US troops will do.
The bloc’s leader, top Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has announced that he is making contact with various nations, including Russia, the European Union, the Islamic Conference, and the United Nations, to see if any of them would be open to replacing the US in January as the training force.
The rest of Iraq’s political leadership has accepted the idea of 5,000 US trainers, but has ruled out giving them blanket immunity like the current occupation forces enjoy. The US is still demanding such immunity as a condition of continuing.
Already other officials have raised the possibility of private trainers as an alternative, but the idea of bringing in another nation in a training capacity is new. It is also unclear if it would be practical, as the training centers around Iraq’s weapon purchases, which are almost exclusively from American weapons dealers.
Don't be silly, front end bribes account for up to 30% of the contracts or 2 $ billion. By switching the trainers to Russians Sadr can switch the kit purchases to Russian and with this money he can buy the militiary in Iraq. Maliki will lose contral of the cheque book and the army as the Russians will come in and buy each of the important militiary figures. US kit is expensive, not readily available on the open/black market and is subject to further sanctions – generally worthless. Russian kit does not have as many problems. Also Iraq needs bombers not fighters which are useless in modern warfare. The US kit package is designed as extremely expensive useless candy floss weapons which prevent the Iraqi's from getting what they need for internal control. Heavy bombers for the Kurds. Foreign fighter jets can be shot down with a Russian SAM system. This dispute has nothing to do with trainers.
That sounds right on the money. Russia annulled 12 billion worth of debt in 2008, and will expect compensations in regards to oil and weapon industry. Saddam always was a loyal customer too (actually the billions of debts were caused that way). This way, a decade old strategy comes to fruition for Russia in regards to Iraq. It's also a more natural alliance, historically, politically and even culturally somewhat.