Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Tehran on Tuesday to meet with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. on his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin sees the West’s attempt to cripple the Russian economy with the harshest sanctions in recent history as a declaration of economic warfare, saying Russia is moving away from the West and closer to China, India and Iran.
(Also read: Russia warns of the arrival of a ‘final judgment’ if Ukraine attacks Crimea)
Just three days after US President Joe Biden ended a visit to Saudi Arabia, the Russian leader arrives in Tehran for his fifth meeting with Khamenei.
“The contact with Khamenei is very important,” Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, told reporters in Moscow. “A trusting dialogue has developed between them on the most important issues on the bilateral and international agenda.”
“On most issues, our positions are close or identical,” he added.
Putin’s visit to Iran will coincide with that of Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, and both leaders will meet in Tehran to discuss a deal aimed at resuming Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports, and Erdogan’s threat to launch another operation in northern Syria that Moscow opposes.
In Syria, Russia and Iran prevailed in their support for President Bashar al-Assad against the West, which has repeatedly called for his ouster since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.
(You may be interested in: Ukraine: Zelensky dismisses the attorney general for treason)
Why to the East?
The 69-year-old Kremlin chief has made few trips abroad in recent years due to the covid-19 pandemic and then the crisis caused by his invasion of Ukraine on February 24. His last trip beyond the former Soviet Union was to China in February.
Visiting the Islamic Republic on his first major trip abroad since the Ukraine war, Putin is sending a clear message to the West that Russia will seek closer ties with Iran.an enemy of the United States since the 1979 Revolution.
Before the trip, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said Russia and Iran had long been subject to Western sanctions – the price, he said, of sovereignty.
(Also: EU Foreign Ministers discuss new sanctions against Russia)
Putin is sending a clear message to the West that Russia will seek closer ties with Iran.
For Tehran, closer ties with Putin’s Russia is a way to balance the influence of the United States and its alliances in the Gulf with Arab rulers and Israel. Putin will meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, elected last year.
“We need a strong ally and Moscow is a superpower,” said a senior Iranian official, who asked not to be identified.
Emboldened by high oil prices, Tehran is betting that with Russia’s support it can pressure Washington to offer concessions to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
Even so, Russia’s leaning toward Beijing has significantly reduced Iran’s crude exports to China, a key source of revenue for Tehran since President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in 2018.
Reuters
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