To no one’s surprise, Russia condemned Israeli and U.S. air strikes targeting Iran’s controversial and potentially ominous nuclear program, which appears to have been on the cusp of being weaponized.
Russia’s pro-Iranian stance was expected, since Moscow has a strategic partnership with Iran, one of its closest allies in the Muslim world.
Beyond offering Iran political support and words of comfort, Russia did not lift a finger to help the Iranian regime counter Israeli and U.S. attacks during the 12-day Israel-Iran war.
Soon after it erupted on June 13, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded statement deploring the Israeli strikes as “categorically unacceptable” and warning that “all the consequences of this provocation will fall on the Israeli leadership.”
Moscow urged Israel and Iran “to exercise restraint in order to prevent further escalation of tensions and keep the region from sliding into a fullscale war.”
The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and the former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, went further, broadly hinting that “a number of countries” were ready to “directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads” should the war continue indefinitely.
Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted a relatively measured approach. He spoke to both Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, offering to be a mediator to deescalate the war, the first between Israel and Iran.
Following his talks with Pezeshkian, Putin condemned Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites, research centers, ballistic missiles launchers, military bases and the like, and offered his condolences.
Putin, too, was averse to antagonizing Israel, notwithstanding Russia’s close ties with Iran.
Russia has developed sound political, economic and cultural relations with Israel in the past 25 years. During the previous Soviet epoch, Russia was staunchly pro-Arab. Moscow broke diplomatic relations with Israel in 1953 and again in 1967 before restoring them in the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Putin, a pragmatist, has established friendly personal ties with Netanyahu, who visited Russia no less than nine times prior to the current war in Ukraine. Putin’s cordial relationship with Netanyahu was such that Russia and Israel were able to resolve sensitive issues long before the latest developments in Iran.
An excellent case in point: During Russia’s military intervention in Syria, Israel and Russia created a deconfliction mechanism to avoid accidental clashes between the Israeli and Russian air forces. This was a necessity because Israeli aircraft regularly bombed Iranian and Syrian military sites in Syria. The arrangement worked remarkably well, even after an incident in 2018 during which a Russian reconnaissance aircraft with 15 soldiers aboard was shot down by Syrian forces responding to an Israeli air strike.
What was particularly striking about Israel’s understanding with Russia was that Putin usually did not publicly object to Israeli attacks against Iranian military bases in Syria.
Despite Putin’s unwillingness to get directly involved in Israel’s confrontation with Iran, Russia had no problem selling Iran sophisticated S-300 air defence missile batteries, which the Israeli Air Force destroyed in Iranian territory last October.
More recently, in apparent deference to Israel, Russia has been slow to deliver major weapons to Iran. Russia, in particular, has delayed the shipment of advanced Su-35 fighter jets to Iran, which seeks to upgrade its aging fleet of aircraft.
In a nod to Russian interests, Israel declined to sell the Iron Dome anti-missile system to Ukraine, a gesture that Putin appreciated.
And during the war with Iran, in another signal of its cautious policy toward Russia, Israel did not bomb the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which was built by Russia and employs more than 200 Russian technicians. “We agreed with the leadership of Israel that their security would be ensured,” Putin disclosed.
Although Putin sided with Iran during the recent war, Russia — a signatory of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement — opposes a weaponized Iranian nuclear program. Russia’s position is that Tehran has the right to a peaceful nuclear energy program. And as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated a few days ago, Russia wants Iran to continue working cooperatively with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Russia has had good ties with Iran for decades, and Putin has met Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, several times in Tehran. But Russia’s bonds with Tehran have grown stronger since its invasion of Ukraine. For the past three years, Iran has supplied Russia with a steady supply of drones and ballistic missiles, which have been used to pummel Ukraine’s front lines and civilian infrastructure.
Russia and Iran, which are both targeted by stinging Western sanctions, do not agree on every single issue of relevance, but their foreign policy objectives have virtually converged, says The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in the United States.
Both countries share “a mutually binding interest in challenging and eventually overturning the U.S.-led world order. This shared ideological core allowed the Russo-Iranian relationship to weather and survive tensions and challenges that have arisen since 2022, and the U.S. should not expect this ideological core to weaken in the years.”
It was not surprising that Russia and Iran, this past January, signed a 20-year cooperation pact, which deepened their partnership. It covers all sectors from trade and military collaboration to scientific, educational and cultural exchanges. Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, praised the deal as a “real breakthrough” in their bilateral relations.
This agreement did not tie Putin’s hands during the Israel-Iran war. He essentially stayed out of it and kept his pro-Iranian rhetoric to a bare minimum. His calibrated posture doubtless disappointed Iran, but probably satisfied Israel and the United States.