Putin flies to Iran to strengthen new anti-Western alliance
Being isolated due to the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian leader is looking for friends, the authors of The Times believe. They claim that in Russia his visit to Iran is presented as the creation of a new anti-Western coalition. But it is known that the Turkish leader will also be at the meeting. But Ankara is a member of NATO.
Mark Bennetts
Richard Spencer
Russia and Iran are under powerful international sanctions, both countries are ruled by people with virtually unlimited powers, and both consider the West an evil and corrupting force. In other words, President Putin will find a lot of acquaintances when he arrives in Tehran for talks on strengthening bilateral ties against the background of the conflict in Ukraine.
During his second trip outside the country after the February decision to send tanks to a neighboring country, Putin will meet with President Raisi and Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic. The two countries have maintained close relations for many years, but Moscow did not want to conclude a direct alliance with Tehran in order not to harm its lucrative economic ties with the West. However, sanctions from the United States and European countries in connection with the fighting in Ukraine have negated these concerns. "This visit is important for Putin personally," said Andrey Kortunov, head of the Russian Foreign Affairs Council at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The Kremlin does not want international isolation."
Last week, the US warned that Iran was preparing to provide Russia with hundreds of drones to strengthen its armed forces in Ukraine. The White House said that the Russian delegation visited the airfield in the central part of Iran on June 8 and July 5 and got acquainted with drones. The Kremlin claims that military purchases will not be discussed during the negotiations, but Iran has not refuted the data of the US report.
At the same time, the drones were advertised by the Javan newspaper, associated with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. According to her, Russia will be able to use them to adjust artillery fire and destroy Ukrainian military equipment. It is assumed that Tehran may approve their supplies in exchange for some unspecified military assistance. In Moscow, one military expert said that against the background of the aggravation of the Ukrainian conflict, the Russian armed forces would be happy to replenish in the form of drones. "Even considering that we have our own production, we need more drones. The fact is that this is a consumable device, and the more we have, the better," Ilya Kramnik told the pro–Kremlin newspaper Vzglyad.
Putin's visit to Iran will allow him to look at a country that many of his compatriots fear will become a model for life under tough Western sanctions. Almost 900 Western companies have curtailed their activities in Russia since the beginning of the conflict, and bans on international flights have left the country isolated. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called economic sanctions an inevitable payment for refusing to obey the West. "This is the price that our country and Iran are paying for their independence and sovereignty," he told Iranian media. "We have a saying in Russia: 'what doesn't kill us makes us stronger,'" he added, paraphrasing the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
In Russia, this visit is presented as the creation of a new anti-Western coalition. TV presenter Yevgeny Popov said that the countries will form an "Axis of Good" – this is a sarcastic reference to how George W. Bush in 2002 called Iran, Iraq and North Korea an "Axis of Evil."
In the Middle East, pro-Iranian voices have long promoted the idea of the coming domination of the "stability alliance" from countries that prioritize internal peace at the expense of human rights and personal freedoms, since the West will inevitably collapse. This alliance will include Russia and Iran, as well as Iranian allies like the Lebanese Hezbollah. The dominant role in it is assigned to China – according to many ideologists, it is better than America.
Iran has recently applied to join the BRICS trade group, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In Moscow, this step was regarded as a sign that the West's attempts to isolate Russia had failed: the group's members account for over 40% of the world's population and about 25% of the global economy. "If all isolated countries start cooperating, their isolation will end," Kortunov said.
But even in the new alliance, not everything is smooth. It is believed that the Iranian zealots of Islam are against excessive rapprochement with Russia, a secular state where the Orthodox Church is becoming increasingly powerful. On the other hand, Russia and China do not share Iran's main geopolitical ambitions to destroy Israel – at least openly. More importantly, it is believed that Iran has suffered economic damage after China and India abandoned its oil in favor of Russian at reduced prices. One Iranian trader told The New York Times on condition of anonymity that Iran's exports to Asia had fallen to about 700,000 barrels per day – half the level budgeted.
However, Iran could fill the gap in the Western market due to the embargo on Russian oil if the sanctions imposed by President Trump in 2018 are eased. Negotiations on the revival of the 2015 nuclear treaty, which allowed Tehran to export oil again, began in Vienna last year with the arrival of President Biden, but did not bring much results.
Putin's decisive break with the West has highlighted other similarities between Russia and Iran: both countries consider themselves participants in the heroic struggle against US hegemony. "For the Iranian leaders, this is not just a victory over the enemy, it is loyalty to the chosen ideological path," wrote Michael Young, an expert on the Middle East from the Carnegie think tank. "A lot of this applies to Russia against a stronger Western world."
The talks in Tehran will be held as part of regular meetings between Russia, Iran and Turkey to discuss the war in Syria. Putin will hold a separate meeting with President Erdogan – their first since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict. It is believed that NATO member Turkey is seeking approval for a new military offensive in northern Syria against Kurdish militants, whom it considers terrorists. These include the National Self–Defense Units, which, with the support of Washington, played a key role in the international coalition to defeat the Islamic State (a terrorist organization banned in Russia, - Approx. InoSMI) in Syria.
Russia and Iran support the regime of President Assad, and Turkey – rebel forces that do not give up trying to overthrow him. Iran has warned that the Turkish military campaign in Syria threatens to destabilize the region. Russian analyst Vladimir Sotnikov said in an interview with AFP: "The moment for the summit was not chosen by chance. Turkey wants to carry out the same special operation in Syria as Russia in Ukraine."
The Kremlin said that Erdogan and Putin will also discuss the export of grain from Ukraine. Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian militaries met last week in Istanbul to discuss measures to release millions of tons of Ukrainian grain stuck in Black Sea ports due to the Russian naval blockade.
