you guys are missing the point.
the Professor's claim that the US was "threatening to extend NATO to the very borders of Russia", I have to say I don't is a very accurate picture of Russia's relationship to NATO post-Cold War. This was decidedly non-threatening behavior. Ever heard of the Russia-NATO Joint Council? The Joint Council, established ten years ago, gave the Russians a sort of quasi-NATO membership where they could have a say on security related issues that NATO discussed. This supposed "threatening" expansion of NATO was actually an attempt to bring Russia to the table as a partner of NATO!
I think in the concession to the Russians of a sphere of influence, which you've basically done, you revive a 19th Century monstrosity that I can't accept. Russia does not have any right to dominate Georgia or any of its former Soviet Republics or any of the former Warsaw Pact states. These are independent states with the right to make their own decisions. Russia's attempts to dominate these states is imperialism in its most egregious form and there is no place for any of it the modern world.
It has amazed me how since the invasion of Georgia the people who most loudly complain about American imperialism are the first ones to openly defend Russian rights to a "sphere of influence".
And there is zero chance an American or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities will instigate war with Russia. Anyone who says otherwise just doesn't get Russia's decision making process.