Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Monday that “unjustified” US attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites were pushing the world towards great danger and promised to try to help the people of the Islamic republic, though he gave no specifics.
US president Donald Trump and Israel have publicly speculated about killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and about regime change, steps Russia fears could push the entire region into a major war.
Mr Putin received Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi in the Kremlin on Monday alongside his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.
“The absolutely unprovoked aggression against Iran has no basis and no justification,” Mr Putin told Mr Araqchi, adding that he wanted to speak about ways to calm the crisis. “For our part, we are making efforts to assist the Iranian people.”
Mr Araqchi was due to deliver a letter from the ayatollah to Mr Putin, seeking more help from Russia, a senior source told Reuters. There was no confirmation of that from Moscow, though Mr Araqchi passed on best wishes from Iran’s supreme leader and president.
At a meeting later with advanced military recruits, Mr Putin noted the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and the involvement of powers from outside the region, though he did not mention the United States by name.
“Extra-regional powers are also being drawn into the conflict,” Mr Putin said. “All this brings the world to a very dangerous line.”
Iran has not been impressed with Russia’s support so far, Iranian sources told Reuters, and the country wants Mr Putin to do more to back it against Israel and the United States. The sources did not elaborate on what assistance Tehran wanted.
Mr Putin, whose army is fighting a major war of attrition in Ukraine, has shown little appetite for a confrontation with the US over Iran just as Mr Trump seeks to repair ties with Moscow.
While Moscow has bought weapons from Iran and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier this year, the published agreement does not contain a mutual defence clause.
Russia has also said it does not want Iran to build a nuclear bomb, a step that Moscow fears would trigger a nuclear arms race across the Middle East.
Iranian officials say they feel Russia has not done enough to support it, and that they feel betrayed by major powers such as Russia and China.
Russia intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015 to support Iran’s ally Bashar al-Assad, but as his enemies closed in on Damascus in late 2024 it refused to send troops or more air power as it considered the situation too dangerous, though it did grant Mr Assad asylum.
Inside Russia, there were calls for Moscow to come to the aid of its partner and to supply Iran with the same support that Washington had given to Ukraine – including air defence systems, missiles and satellite intelligence.
At the UN Security Council on Sunday, Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East after US strikes.
Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia recalled former US secretary of state Colin Powell making the case at the UN security council in 2003 that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of the country’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
“Again we’re being asked to believe the US’s fairy tales, to once again inflict suffering on millions of people living in the Middle East. This cements our conviction that history has taught our US colleagues nothing,” he said. – Reuters
