Recent reports by The Washington Post that Iran is increasing its support for russia in the war against Ukraine, in particular by agreeing to provide the kremlin with surface-to-surface missiles for strikes on Ukrainian cities and positions of Ukrainian troops, caused another wave of discussions in the high offices of Western countries.
The basis of these discussions is the question of how to respond to the activities of Iran under sanctions?
But in the context of the formation of the “strange union” of Iran and russia, another important question arises: what united these diametrically opposed countries and is it possible to expand such a “coalition”.
AUTHORITARIANISM AS A CENTER OF GRAVITY
The thesis that on the territory of Ukraine “the war of freedom against tyranny continues” is not just the beautiful words of journalists. Unfortunately, this is something that needs no proof. And in this case, awareness of the fact that countries with authoritarian regimes coordinate and help each other in the same way as the collective West helps Ukraine, allows one to assess the nature of relations between the regimes in russia and Iran.
Just as during the Second World War, when the Third Reich, Italy and the Japanese Empire (the “Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis”) united based on the principle of similarity of political views and regimes, now Iran’s rapprochement with russia can be explained by the similarity of political regimes and the proximity of worldviews , which have become stronger and stronger over the past decades.
According to an expert of the Berlin Foundation for Science and Politics, “both countries oppose the dominance of the United States in international relations and oppose it. In addition, tensions in relations between Iran and Western countries have been constantly increasing since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979.” Now, in connection with the war against Ukraine, russia found itself in a geopolitical position similar to that of Iran, which is a powerful unifying factor for the regimes.
As for domestic politics in russia and Iran, both putin’s regime and the regime of the Ayatollah correspond to the signs of authoritarianism.
In this context, we should not forget that russia’s ally is also the lukashenko’s regime in Belarus, which also contains all the signs of authoritarianism. This fact complements the general picture of Iran-russia relations and makes it whole.
That is why the fact that Iran helps russia should not surprise anyone: authoritarian regimes that seek to wipe out smaller nations and are willing to use nuclear weapons to do so, commit war crimes or acts of terrorism such as the destruction of civilian planes, are drawn to each other.
PERSIAN OR IMPERIAL: WHAT’S WRONG WITH “GERAN” AND OTHER “GIFTS” TO IRAN?
For many years, the russian federation lagged behind in the development and implementation of UAVs, and there was no question of mass production of kamikaze drones at all. However, in September, the russian mass media unexpectedly began to publish news that Geran-2 drones were in service with the russian army.
This raised a natural question, where in russia could a kamikaze drone come from? All the more so, until the moment when the news spread about the photos of the Geran-2 UAV, it almost didn’t happen. Given the relevance of the moment of the appearance of such devices, there was an assumption in expert circles that this is someone’s “help”. This was confirmed in the final version: Geran-2 drones are Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.
However, the political and military leadership of Iran in every way denies its involvement in the supply of weapons to russia. However, before the appearance of Geran in the Ukrainian skies, a russian delegation visited the Middle Eastern country and was interested in drones in particular.
The fact that “Geran-2” is actually Shahed-136 is confirmed by the debris left after the use of drones. The most telling evidence of the “Iranian hand” is the surviving UAV engines. These are licensed Chinese 2-stroke MD 550 or 3W with a capacity of 50 liters. Each motor has a characteristic Iranian marking.
The Iranian origin of “Geran” was carelessly confirmed by an expert from the ministry of defense of the russian federation, r.pukhov, who spoke on the air: “we will not rock the boat, so I am asking you very much on these Iranian ones… because this is a classic of stories – there is an ass, but no words, Yes? We all know that they are Iranian, but the authorities do not recognize it.”
Interesting in this context is the fact that the Ukrainian military recently managed to “land” an undamaged Iranian Mohajer-6 attack drone, which once again confirms the cooperation between Iran and the russian federation in the field of armaments.
At the same time, reports began to appear in the information space that Iran plans to supply russia with Fateh-110 ballistic missiles. This was written by The Washington Post with reference to sources in the intelligence of one of the countries friendly to the USA.
Therefore, very soon we should expect “good” news (and in fact – outright disinformation) from the solovyov-skabeevs about the “breakthroughs” of the russian defense industry in the field of developing miracle weapons, which will help russia “win” on the battlefield in Ukraine.
“DISMANTLING” OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS AND NEW SANCTIONS: WHAT IS EXPECTING THE AYATOLLAH’S REGIME?
As reported by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, russia continues to carry out terrorist attacks against the civilian population and critical infrastructure of Ukraine, using Iranian-made combat drones. Therefore, the fact of providing weapons for waging a war of aggression in Ukraine and killing Ukrainian citizens makes Iran complicit in the crime of aggression, war crimes and terrorist acts of the russian federation against Ukraine.
In this regard, the agency called on Tehran to immediately stop supplying russia with any weapons. At the same time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, D. Kuleba, submitted to the consideration of the President of Ukraine, V. Zelenskyy, a proposal to break diplomatic relations with Iran.
The collective West does not remain aloof from Iranian participation in russia’s war against Ukraine. Thus, Politico reported that the European Union has prepared new sanctions against Iran for supplying weapons to russia. Diplomats hope to agree on a new package on October 19, or at least before the summit of EU leaders on October 20-21.
In general, Ukraine has now made its civilizational choice to be on the right side of the latest “iron curtain”. But do not forget that the war is still going on. And russia continues to look for and, unfortunately, find allies similar to itself. In this regard, the enemy will change its tactics more than once. Therefore, it is morally necessary to prepare for a protracted campaign and not stop believing in the power of Ukraine and its allies
