Why is Russia siding with the Islamic Republic amid West Asia chaos? – Firstpost

Russia’s Vladimir Putin is set to meet Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian today (11 October).

The meeting, the first between the two men,  will take place in Turkmenistan at an event commemorating the 300th anniversary of the birth of an 18th Century poet.

It comes in the backdrop of Israel bombing Lebanon to target the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

It also comes a week after Russia’s prime minister Mikhail Mishustin met Pezeshkian and First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref in Iran last week.

But why is Russia siding with Iran?

Let’s take a closer look:

The Russia-Iran relationship

First, let’s briefly examine the Russia-Iran relationship.

Describing it as complicated would be far too straightforward.

A piece in Lawfaremedia.org noted that the countries have been competitors for nearly 200 years and that Iran’s ex- Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini despised the Soviet Union almost as much as the United States.

Anu Sharma, research associate at the Centre for the Air Power Studies, New Delhi, puts it more delicately.

He wrote that the relationship has “
fluctuated between mistrust and forging a strategic partnership.”

Indeed, the two nations are not officially allies, as per
Carnegie Endowment.

Rather, they have entered into a partnership of convenience – based on their strategic and geopolitical interests – against the West.

The piece in War of the Rocks, noting the strangeness of the relationship nevertheless described it as “strategically enticing.”

The article noted how Iran needs a powerful friend that can provide it with arms.

Even better that the friend is on the UN Security Council – giving Iran room to manoeuvre on the international stage.

However, Russia’s support of Tehran is more of a puzzle – varying from being ideological enemies of the West and being opposed to Sunni fundamentalism.

The piece noted that the relationship deepened after the two countries’ intelligence agencies cooperated with an eye to monitoring several Sunni radical groups in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

In West Asia, they are more concerned about keeping anti-West powers in power and expanding their own power base.

As per
War on the Rocks, Russia from the early 1990s mostly provided Iran with military hardware.

This included tanks, armoured vehicles, anti-tank missiles, combat aircraft, helicopters, and surface-to-air missiles.

The CAPS piece noted that Putin bettered relations with Iran when he took power in 1999.

A couple of years later, Iran had become the third biggest purchaser of Russia’s weapons.

In 2005, the countries signed a billion dollar deal for Russia to provide Iran with weapons.

Moscow also invested $750 million in Iran’s energy projects.

In 2012, after Putin returned as president, the countries became even closer.

According to CAPS, Russia changed its position on the sanctions imposed on Iran and also invited Tehran to become an observer in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

According to
Foreign Policy, the crucible of the strategic alliance was forged in 2015.

At this time, Russia and Iran jointly helped Bashar al-Assad hold onto power in Syria.

In 2016, Russia bombed rebel targets in Syria using Iranian bases.

That was also the year the two countries signed a $10 billion agreement for Moscow to provide Tehran with arms and hardware, as per CAPS.

Ukrainian war deepens bond

Since Russia’s invasion of Moscow in 2022, the relationship with Tehran has only deepened.

As per War on the Rocks, Tehran has emerged as a key contributor to Moscow’s air and ground capabilities.

In late 2022, the two nations reached a deal to supply for Tehran to provide hundreds of drones to Moscow for use in the war, according to Foreign Policy.

Tehran is also thought to have sent advisers to train Russia’s forces to operate the drones.

Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine. AP

In the early days of 2023, Ukraine shot down dozens of Iran-made drones over is cities.

Until May 2024, Moscow had sent around 4,000 Iranian-designed Shahed drones against Kyiv.

The defence relationship has also deepened.

As per War on the Rocks, Russia and Iran are increasingly cooperating in electronic warfare, space, and the cyber realm.

Russia in August 2022 and February 2024 launched imaging satellites for Iran.

Moscow has also vowed to help Iran with its space programme and has shared information about how to jam radar and thwart GPS.

Russia has also provided Iran with its Yak-130 training aircraft.

The two countries also signed an agreement for Moscow to purchase ballistic missiles from Tehran with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev making the trip himself.

Iran last week just delivered a number of short-range ballistic missiles (CRBMs) to Russia including the Fateh-110, Fateh-360 and Zolfaghar – all of whom  have ranges between 300 kilometres and 700 kilometres.

Iran in turn is hoping to receive advanced military technology, including the Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 air defence systems from Russia.

What do experts say?

That the Ukraine war has brought the two countries together like never before.

“The war in Ukraine changed how Russia viewed its ties with Iran,” said Emil Avdaliani, director of Middle East studies at Geocase, a Georgian think tank, told Foreign Policy. “Before 2022, bilateral relations were characterized by ambivalence: high talks but little substance. … With the war, however, Russia’s turn to Asia has become complete and Iran’s support is now seen as critical in [the] Kremlin.”

“It’s hard to come up with an example of another country that has provided as much support willingly to Russia as has Iran,” added Anna Borshchevskaya, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The War on the Rocks piece noted that the West needs to take note of the fact that there is little chance of the Moscow-Tehran relationship reverting to what it was before 2022.

“Both countries have identified needs for future military contingencies that they can help each other meet — even if Iran will continue to be more reliant on advanced technology from Russia than vice versa,” the piece noted.

A photo shows a Fath-360 short-range ballistic missile. File Image/Iranian Army

“Russia has been closely cooperating with Iran for the past two-and-a-half years, but exclusively in the military sphere,” Ruslan Suleymanov, an independent Russian specialist on the Middle East based in Baku, Azerbaijan, told
Al Jazeera.

“Iranian weapons are in great demand. They have never been in such demand, and Russia has become dependent on Iranian weapons.”

Suleymanov said that though Russia does not want war, chaos in West Asia benefits it.

“The Americans are now distracted from the war in Ukraine: They need to spend a lot of time resolving the situation in the Middle East,” he added.

With inputs from agencies