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Opinion
June 8, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
Russia, the dominant power in the conflict reso- lution process, would be opposed to any Iranian initiatives that would diminish Moscow’s role in bringing Baku and Yerevan to the table.
Russian ‘Eurasianists’ look to Tehran
and Ankara as pillars
So, despite their centuries-old rivalry, where might Russia and Iran find a real basis for coop- eration? In the past several years, it has become clear that Russia is very keen on building closer relations with Iran. Why so? The map of Eurasia gives a glimpse into the rationale of the Rus- sian political elite. Russian political thinkers of the 1990s often contended that Iran and Turkey should be pillars of future Russian influence in the Middle East. The so-called Eurasianists, who believe that Russia is neither in Europe nor in Asia, say that to successfully compete with western powers, Moscow needs both Tehran and Ankara.
Under Russian President Vladimir Putin those notions were officially pushed aside, but not in practice. It has been in Russia’s perennial inter- est to keep Iran at least neutral, something that historically happened during both the Romanov era and the Soviet empire.
Both Russia and Iran loathe seeing any western military encroachment in the South Caucasus and the Middle East. Both consider the evolving grand
strategy of the US for the Eurasian land mass
as negative to their geopolitical imperatives. For Russia, the US violates the post-Cold War order as it ramps up military pressure on Moscow in the former Soviet space; for Iran, the US, having ditched the deal Barack Obama signed to limit Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, is intent on hindering any Iranian geopolitical outreach across the Mid- dle East, including in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. Thus, this common apprehension towards the US can be considered one driver behind close Russo- Iranian cooperation.
The US has unveiled a new national strategy doc- ument enumerating the major problems Wash- ington perceives across Eurasia. Russia and Iran feature as the most problematic influences for the US. The unilateral US withdrawal from the mul- tilateral nuclear accord is a defining moment for the Moscow-Tehran cooperation as Iran waits on what its other signatories, including Russia, will truly do to shield Iranian and foreign companies that do business with Iran from Trump’s turning of the screw with sanctions.
Emil Avdaliani teaches history and international relations at Tbilisi State University and Ilia State University. He has worked for various international consulting companies and currently publishes arti- cles focused on military and political developments across the Eurasian continent.