Iran and Russia

2011 Joint Area Centers Symposium
Session 4: Iran, Central Asia, and Europe

"Iran and Russia"
Mark N. Katz (George Mason University)

Chair: Richard Tempest (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Although the United States and Russia have had difficult relations since the rise of Vladimir Putin in 1999, Iran and Russia have also had difficult relations during this period. This is partly due to Iranian distrust of Russia stretching back to the early 19th century (and which the Iranian press frequently refers to even now). But it is also partly due to Tehran and Moscow disagreeing on several issues that have divided them just over the past decade, including: UN Security Council diplomacy concerning the Iranian nuclear issue, Russia’s delay in completing the construction of a nuclear reactor for Iran at Bushehr, Russia’s delay in delivering the S-300 air defense missile system to Iran, the delimitation of the Caspian Sea, and several other issues. Although Washington has been upset at how much Moscow cooperates with Tehran, Tehran has been upset at how little Moscow has cooperated with it. Indeed, the Iranian press regularly expresses the fear that Moscow is just waiting to sell out Tehran’s interests for the right price from Washington. But no matter how annoyed Tehran is with Moscow, Iran cannot afford to allow relations with Russia to deteriorate too much for fear that this will result in increased Russian cooperation with the U.S. against it.