While the EU's plan to create a "special way" to protect trade with Iran and avoid US sanctions continues to frustrate the leadership in Tehran, the Russian government has taken a decisive step to help Iran bypass sanctions by allowing Tehran to transport crude oil through ports in Crimea. This is not the first time that Russia has acted as a bulwark against Iran's political and economic isolation. For example, it has been arming it with advanced systems and military technology. Russia has bypassed punitive measures against Iran and objected to UN Security Council resolutions, which it deems inappropriate for Iran, regardless of a brief period during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, when he and then US President Barack Obama were trying to "reset" relations. American - Russian.

Speaking about the recent development of Russian-Iranian cooperation, the acting Prime Minister of Crimea, Georgi Muratov, declared that Iran could use ports on Russian (disputed) territory to transport oil. The news comes two months after Moscow and Tehran announced they would conduct joint naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important strategic oil artery, and the site where Iran has seized three oil tankers so far this year. Russia's efforts to help Iran avoid sanctions and an unprecedented expansion of military cooperation between the two countries have given a boost to Russian-Iranian harmony, even if symbolic.

The first sign of increased military coordination between Moscow and Tehran was in 2016, when Russia sent a fleet of bombers bound for Syria from an Iranian airbase. This was the first time a foreign army had operated from Iranian territory in nearly 100 years. Article 146 of the Iranian constitution strictly prohibits the stationing of foreign forces on Iranian territory, even for peaceful purposes. Thus, these moves were symbolic in nature and a sign of the growing convergence of Russian and Iranian interests. The interactions of these two countries are not necessarily "alliances". It is unclear, for example, to what extent Russia will engage militarily in the event of an attack on Iran, or vice versa, so the Russian-Iranian partnership may best be described as "bias."

Circumstantial alliance

With divergent historical narratives and contradictory ideological backgrounds, Moscow and Tehran are in fact building a strange friendship, characterized by everything from a "random partnership" to a "circumstantial alliance," and the Russian-Iranian bias of each other is ambiguous. In fact, Moscow's maneuvers with Iran have been manifested in peak and descent, oscillating between cooperation and conflict. There is speculation that the Kremlin is simply guided by the harsh realities of realpolitik and that it will “sell” Iran for lucrative defense and military contracts.

Moscow is said to have given Israel the "green light" to strike Iranian targets in Syria, while Russia is reportedly refusing to upgrade Iran's air defense missile battery to the more sophisticated S400 system. Russia apparently neglected its membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), although China is to blame, and deceived Iran in a trillions of dollars deal, through the "Agreement on the Special Status of the Caspian Sea," signed in August 2018. These are some arguments. Which are frequently referred to to prove that Moscow is not fulfilling its commitment to Tehran. The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, disagrees. However, in a meeting with Russian officials in Tehran two months ago, the senior official emphasized the positive course of Russian-Iranian cooperation. He expressed gratitude for Russia's "decisive and fair" stance regarding the US cancellation of the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA), Iran's presence in Syria, the entry of a US spy drone into Iranian airspace, and Britain's seizure of an Iranian tanker off the coast of Mount. Tarek.

Easing sanctions

On September 2, during talks with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated the Kremlin's stance, accusing the United States of "publicly trying to provoke Iran," and praised recent French efforts to try to break the deadlock and persuade the United States to ease Some sanctions against Iran.

Habits of War

The culture of anti-imperialist foreign policy dominates Iran's revolutionary spirit, its strategic preferences, and therefore bilateral relations with Russia, for example.

On the Russian side, Iran is seen as a key player in its quest to foster an alliance against hegemony and hopes that this will lead to an alternative structure of world affairs, as evidenced by the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the BRICS (which includes Brazil, Russia and India). China and South Africa) and deepen cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). According to researcher Richard Sakua, the pattern of world order is changing in the “cold peace” period between Russia and the West, marked by the failure of Western security organizations to bypass Cold War institutions and customs, at a time when Russia was showing openness to adaptation to Western norms and institutions. This makes it possible to reduce the bipolar confrontation between the liberal international system and a group of countries, including Russia and Iran. This explains the deeper and broader pattern of cooperation between the two countries.

Despite conflicting interests and regularly colliding geostrategic passages, Russia and Iran share a similar geopolitical vision, defined by these permanent criteria and consisting of historical legacies and concepts, cultural cultural specificities, normative values, and a shared view of the West.

Political expert Trian Flocart says a complex web of relationships within the system itself will determine the nature of the next multi-system world. In this context, Russian-Iranian marriage should sometimes be assessed as a conflict of interest.

Gonsha Tazmini is a political scientist and author of several books on Iran.

Make concessions

The degree of expansion or contraction in Russian-Iranian cooperation depends on the US-Russia relations being friendly or hostile at the time. There is some truth to this argument, looking back at Medvedev's presidency, when Russia voted in favor of all six resolutions on Iran passed in the Security Council between 2006 and 2010. However, Russia will not abandon Iran in the current climate, because there is a fundamental difference between Russian and American perceptions of the post-Cold War world order. A fundamental and lasting axis toward the United States will require a fundamental reshaping of US foreign policy toward the Kremlin, based on concessions in accordance with traditional Russian priorities and concerns. This would require Washington to suspend NATO's eastward expansion, at least, and to ignore Russia's geopolitical aspirations in former Soviet countries, an unlikely scenario.

Moscow and Tehran have a strange friendship characterized by everything, from a "random partnership" to a "circumstantial alliance," and the Russian-Iranian bias of each other is ambiguous.

Moscow is said to have given Israel a "green light" to strike Iranian targets in Syria, while reports confirm that Russia refuses to upgrade the Iranian air defense missile battery to the S-400 system.