In March 2026, when the smoke cleared over Tehran following the US-Israeli campaign against the Iranian leadership, the Russian response was noticeably restrained. Despite a 20-year strategic partnership treaty signed with Tehran last year, Moscow limited its response to condemnation and calls for diplomacy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russia has not received a request for military assistance from Iran. “There were no requests from Iran in this case,” Peskov said told reporters on March 5.
For analysts who study the relationship between Moscow and Tehran, the moment felt familiar. “The relationship has always been transactional,” said Ksenia Svetlova, executive director of the Regional Organization for Peace, Economy and Security (ROPES) and associate fellow at Chatham House. “Russia does what serves its own interests.”
Although Iran and Russia have grown closer in recent years — especially after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — experts say the partnership has never resembled a true alliance. Instead, they say, it reflects a long history of cooperation, shaped by convenience, rivalry and changing geopolitical needs.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, greets Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi ahead of their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, June 23, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
The shadow of Turkmenchay
The uneasy relationship between the two powers goes back almost two centuries. In 1828, the Treaty of Turkmenchay forced Persia to cede large parts of the Caucasus to the Russian Empire after a military defeat. The treaty remains one of the most painful symbols of foreign domination in Iranian political memory.
In the twentieth century, Russia’s relationship with Iran changed dramatically. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Moscow maintained relatively stable ties with Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. “It actually had good relations with the Shah who visited Moscow after World War II,” Svetlova said.
“But communist Russia was very suspicious of Islamist Iran after the 1979 revolution,” Svetlova said. It was a mutual distrust; Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini denounced both Cold War superpowers, calling the United States the “Great Satan” and the Soviet Union the “Little Satan.”
Even during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the Soviet Union maintained ties with Tehran while supplying weapons to Iraq. “The Soviet Union was very suspicious of Islamist Iran,” Svetlova said. “Even after the revolution, the relationship could not really be considered an alliance.”
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Iran is using Russian exercises to move attack drones in the Strait of Hormuz, a defense expert said. (Iranian Army/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Drone Wedding
However, in recent years, geopolitical pressures have brought the two countries closer together. Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 created a new military partnership between Moscow and Tehran.
Although Russia and Iran have not shared a land border since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, they remain ‘neighbors’ via the Caspian Sea. This “blue border” became a vital artery in 2022 when Iran supplied the Shahed series drones used in Ukraine, which Russia has used extensively in attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.
Vice Adm. Robert S. Harward, a retired Navy SEAL and former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, said the partnership has had direct consequences on the battlefield. “Unfortunately, the world is only now getting a taste of Iranian drones. But there is one group that already knows them well: the Christians in Ukraine,” Harward said. “Nearly 600 Ukrainian churches have been destroyed by Russian attacks, including by Iran’s Shahed drones.”
The remains of a Russian-made, Iranian-designed Shahed-136 drone, known in Russia as a Geran-2, along with other recovered drones, glide bombs, rockets and missiles are displayed in Kharkiv on July 30, 2025. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
Carrie Filipetti, executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition and former deputy assistant secretary of state, argued that Russia’s continued use of Iranian drones against Ukrainian targets underlines the depth of the military relationship, while its calls for restraint in the current conflict highlight a fundamental contradiction. “If Russia were serious about peace, we would have seen a ceasefire with Ukraine months ago,” she said. “Yet Putin continues to attack Ukrainian cities, churches and citizens with Iranian drones day after day.”
And yet, Russia’s dependence on Iranian drones also declined during the early stages of the war in Ukraine as Moscow built up its own production capacity. A report cited by the Washingtonpost found that Russia “has moved from importing Iranian Shahed drones to mass-producing them” under the name Geran-2.
Boundaries and intelligence
War Secretary Piet Hegseth said on Tuesday that Russia “should not be involved” in the escalating conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran, after reports emerged that Russia has provided information that could help Iran identify US military assets in the Middle East. Moscow has not publicly confirmed the claims.
“I believe Russia is providing Iranian intelligence to more effectively attack Americans, our allies and partners in the CENTCOM region,” said Lt. Gen. Richard Y. Newton III, a retired Air Force officer who served as assistant vice chief of the U.S. Air Force. “It is absolutely clear that Russia is not our friend.”
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Members of the Iranian Navy attend the joint Iran-China-Russia naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman, Iran, in this handout image obtained March 12, 2025. (Iranian military/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/handout via Reuters)
“They are doing something for the Iranians without spending money, spending troops or spending equipment,” Svetlova added. “They share knowledge. They provided the Iranians with a list of targets, basically through their satellites: American targets, but also air targets in the Gulf and Iraq.”
Harward argued that addressing this growing collaboration requires a broader strategy. “If we want to break the threat of the increasingly dangerous Russian-Iranian alliance, we must completely decimate Iran’s ability to threaten our allies and the United States – and we must continue to support Ukraine and get the Europeans to do their part,” he said.
Filipetti remains skeptical about Moscow’s role as a mediator. “The idea that Russia would call on the US and Israel to cease military operations against the regime in Iran and suggest that we should negotiate is absurd,” Filipetti said.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) meets Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. ((Photo by Dmitry AZAROV / SPUTNIK / AFP) (Photo by DMITRY AZAROV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images))
Although Russia has failed to help Iran in simple military ways, experts say intelligence cooperation has been deep.
Ultimately, Newton argued that Russia’s actions should be viewed through the lens of President Vladimir Putin’s broader geopolitical goals. “Putin is only doing what serves Putin, and at this point, escalating the war in the Middle East and driving up oil prices is only in his interest so he can continue to finance his war machine against Ukraine,” he said.
