It is hardly a coincidence that the problems with payments for the Bushehr project began shortly before Clay Sell, Deputy Secretary of Energy, came to Moscow to discuss the details of the U.S.-Russian nuclear cooperation agreement (known as 123 agreement). In his interview to Interfax, Mr. Sell said that the administration hopes to be ready to submit the agreement to Congress in about three months.
That does not mean, however, that the Bushehr project will be stopped - it may still go ahead, if only because it gives all the parties involved a leverage in the situation.
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I would say that it looks apparent that Russia is not going to finish the Bushehr reactor while Putin is still president. Putin himself gave an announcement that work was being stopped because of payment issues by Iran.
Russia has more to gain by leaving the reactor unfinished. It gives them leverage in the region and it means they have to take part in any plan to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons. If they finished it they would lose almost all the influence they have in that area and they would seriously insult the West for giving the Iranians access to nuclear technology.
Carnegie Center in Moscow has video and audio of Clay Sell's presentation there.
Darth-
Your reasoning seems to be deliberatedly contrived to project some advantage to Russia and lull them to false belief. I beg to differ. Russia has everything to loose by not completing their responsibilities - especially when Iran badly needs to resist U.S. attempts to find a lame excuse to bomb them. This kind of reasoning is typical of U.S. administration and the media there which invents new meanings instead of the straight forward ones.