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64 I Eurasia bne March 2023
Putin meeting Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during his visit to Tehran in July last year. / khamenei.ir, cc-by-sa 4.0
How Russia and Iran are in cahoots bne IntelIiNews
By the time Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, Iran over many years had gotten well used to being the world’s most sanctioned nation. The invasion, of course, sparked a Western economic backlash against Moscow, the extent of which was unprecedented, meaning Iran now found itself the second most sanctioned country.
The onslaught of sanctions against Iran’s maritime neighbour over the Caspian Sea called for some quick, evasive action from the Kremlin. Officials under Vladimir Putin, who found a sympathetic ear when he visited Tehran in July last year, were
not slow in consulting with Iranian counterparts on methods and schemes for working around sanctions, and sanctions evasion was very much the focus of the Russia-Iran relationship for the first few months of the Ukraine War. But as the year progressed, it became
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menacingly clear to the Ukrainians and their allies that Iran was also supporting Russia in another way – it was providing the Russian Army with kamikaze and other military drones that were taking
a toll on Ukrainian civilian as well as military targets.
By last week, it was reported that
G7 member states were discussing whether to sanction companies in Iran – as well as in China and North Korea – for providing Russia with parts and technology, such as microchips, that have dual-technology military purposes.
Analysts at the US Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, were making the case that Iran was emerging as a global leader in the production of cheap and lethal military drones and was using the war in Ukraine as a shop window for its technologies. Iran was no longer just a regional drone player in the Middle East
– it should, they said, be seen as Moscow’s most significant military backer in the war. The extent of Iran’s potential weapon provision was also indicated by a recent Al-Monitor report that quoted an Iranian military intelligence official as saying: “Our power has grown to levels where China is waiting in line to buy 15,000 of our drones.”
Iran is thought by US intelligence officials to have supplied three
models of drone to Russia, namely the Shahed-131 and 136 single-use kamikaze drones, used by Moscow as a cheaper alternative to cruise missiles, and the Mohajer-6 multi-role drone, which
can be used for intelligence gathering and can carry a missile payload. The
US Defense Intelligence Agency has made it clear that Iran appears to be “committed to resupplying” Russia with drones, though Tehran denies claims it is building a military drone production facility in Russia, in Tatarstan.