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Russian President Vladimir Putin has traveled to the Iranian capital Tehran for a summit meeting. There he will speak with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Symbolically, this is a success for him.
After the invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has become a pariah for the West, with whom they no longer want to have anything to do, says foreign editor David Nauer, who observes developments for SRF. “But countries like Iran, which themselves have bad relations with Europe and the USA, of course see things differently. So you could say that Putin travels to where he is still welcomed.”
That means that Putin is doing foreign policy where he can. “For the people who have the same opponent as him, namely the West,” says Nauer. But there are even more reasons for the trip, such as common economic interests. There is talk of Moscow wanting to export oil via the Caspian Sea and Iran on a new route to Asia, primarily to India. It may also be about arms deals: Russia is interested in Iranian drones.
Admiration in Moscow for mullahs
Iran has been used to dealing with harsh Western sanctions for decades. For Moscow, sanctions on the scale that have been in place since the Ukraine war are new. One hears that Russia is also interested in learning from Iran in this regard. “It is actually the case that the Russians see the Iranians as ‘brothers in suffering’,” confirms Nauer.
This is also said openly in Moscow: “Official voices speak of Iran with a certain admiration. Iran is doing so well with the sanctions. And maybe the mullahs will actually have one or two tips on how to circumvent sanctions.”
So the common enemy in the West brings Russia and Iran closer together. But there are also some things that separate the countries. “In fact, the Russian-Iranian relationship is also troubled,” explains the former Moscow correspondent. “Different assessments in relation to Israel, for example.” Another big problem is that both countries have the same export product: oil.
Since the attack on Ukraine, the Russians have been pushing into this market, where sanctioned petrostates have had to share a small cake.
Because of Western sanctions, they can only sell this oil to a few countries and only at a discount. “And since the attack on Ukraine, the Russians have been pushing into this market where sanctioned petrostates have to share a small cake.”
The fact that Putin is meeting with Iran’s president and the Turkish head of state is nevertheless a great success for Moscow – at least symbolically, says Nauer. “The Russians have been talking about a multipolar world for years. They want to break the hegemony of the West, especially the United States.”
The meeting in Tehran shows that the world now actually has several power centers. “Putin is being heavily sanctioned, but despite all Western efforts, Russia is not isolated.”
«Iranization of Russia» is progressing
“It’s definitely a great success for Putin,” Nauer said. For the people of Russia, however, this comes at a high price. A critical Russian expert spoke in this context of an “Iranization of Russia”: Russia is cut off from a large part of the world, he said. Like Iran, it is losing access to Western technology and will become poorer as a result.