Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone on Saturday with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi, the Kremlin announced, at a time when Tehran appears to be a major ally of Moscow in its intervention in Ukraine. The two leaders spoke ofa series of questions“related to bilateral relations between Iran and Russia”emphasizing increased cooperation in the political, economic and commercial spheres“, said the Russian presidency in a press release.
The Kremlin specifies that Vladimir Putin and Ebrahim Raïsi also discussed “transport and logistics», while the Russian and Iranian economies are under heavy Western sanctions. This call comes as Vladimir Putin seems increasingly isolated on the international scene since the launch of his offensive in Ukraine at the end of February, marked since by a series of defeats for the Russian army.
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Vladimir Putin has notably given up on going to the G20 summit in Indonesia next week. While China and India, usually allies of Russia, say they are concerned about the conflict, Moscow and Tehran have begun a major rapprochement. kyiv and its Western supporters, notably the Americans, thus accuse Russia of massively using Iranian-made drones in Ukraine. Press articles have also reported potential deliveries of Iranian surface-to-surface missiles to Moscow, accusations denied by Tehran.
In early November, Iran however admitted having supplied drones to Russia, but assured that these deliveries had taken place before the offensive in Ukraine. This week, the secretary of the powerful Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, went to Tehran, where he had discussions on security cooperation between the two countries.