Russia has denied reports that a delay in launching Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant is linked to a meeting between Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama
19 Kasım 2009 Perşembe 01:29
The two leaders met on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore on Sunday, a day before the Russian energy minister announced another delay in the launch of the power plant in southeastern Iran.
"There is no link between what is going on at talks on Iran's nuclear program and the construction of the Bushehr NPP," Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. "This is not politics — technological issues are being addressed."
The Bushehr plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999, but its finalization has repeatedly been delayed and after some ten years Moscow is still postponing the launch of the facility.
Russia is also running behind schedule with regards to an agreement to deliver Iran the sophisticated S-300 defense missile system — a mobile land-based system designed to shoot down aircrafts and cruise missiles.
Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday hinted that Russia's impediment may backfire, costing the federation its "economic and political ties with Iran”.
"The Russians should know if they politicize the completion of the Bushehr nuclear power plant project, then ... ties between Iran and Russia would face many changes," the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Energy Hamidreza Katouzian said.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore on Sunday, a day before the Russian energy minister announced another delay in the launch of the power plant in southeastern Iran. 
