Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tomorrow in Tehran, the first trip of the Kremlin head outside the countries of the former Soviet Union (USSR) since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin characterized the attempts of the West to destroy the Russian economy with the strongest sanctions in modern history as a declaration of economic war and said that Russia is turning towards China, India and Iran.
Just three days after US President Joseph Biden completed his visit to Saudi Arabia, the Russian leader is arriving in Tehran to hold his first meeting with Khamenei, the supreme leader who came to power in 1989.
"Contact with Khamenei is very important," said Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser.
"A frank conversation was established between them regarding a number of important topics on the bilateral and international agenda".
"On most topics, our positions are close or identical," he said.
Putin's visit to Iran will coincide with that of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the two leaders will meet in Tehran to discuss a deal to re-export grain from the Black Sea as well as Erdogan's threat to launch a new operation in northern Syria, which Moscow is fiercely opposed to. .
Putin (69) has rarely traveled abroad in recent years, first because of the pandemic and then because of the crisis caused by the invasion of Ukraine. His last visit abroad outside the former Soviet republics was in February to China.
By going to the Islamic Republic as part of his first foreign visit since the start of the war in Ukraine, Putin is sending a clear message to the West that Russia wants to build relations with Iran, a US enemy since the 1979 revolution.
Before the trip, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia and Iran have long been the target of Western sanctions, which, in his words, is the price of sovereignty.
For Tehran, establishing ties with Putin's Russia is a way to balance the influence of the US and its alliances across the Gulf with Arab rulers and Israel.
Putin will also meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was elected last year.
"We need a strong ally, and Moscow is a superpower," said a senior Iranian official, who wished to remain anonymous.
Bolstered by high oil prices, Tehran hopes, with Russia's support, to pressure Washington into offering concessions to renew the 2015 nuclear deal.
Still, Russia's pivot to Beijing has significantly reduced Iran's crude oil exports to China - a key source of revenue for Tehran since former US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on the country in 2018.
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