• D.C.
  • BXL
  • Lagos
  • Riyadh
  • Beijing
  • SG
  • D.C.
  • BXL
  • Lagos
Semafor Logo
  • Riyadh
  • Beijing
  • SG


icon

Semafor Signals

Putin to meet Iran’s president as Russia flexes diplomacy despite Western sanctions

Oct 10, 2024, 3:36pm EDT
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Kristina Kormilitsyna/Sputnik/Pool via Reuters
PostEmailWhatsapp
Title icon

The News

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is set to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian for the first time this week to discuss the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Moscow and Tehran have grown closer since Russia invaded Ukraine, with the two countries planning to sign a strategic partnership agreement as Iran continues to send weapons to Russia.

AD

Putin has a calendar full of diplomatic engagements as he seeks to evade Russia’s Western-imposed diplomatic isolation, including playing host to more than 24 world leaders at the BRICS summit later this month, a Kremlin official said Thursday.

icon

SIGNALS

Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.

Russia and Iran’s cozy relationship may have a limit

Source icon
Sources:  
The Guardian, AFP, Foreign Affairs, Bloomberg

Russia and Iran’s military collaboration has ramped up since 2022, culminating in recent weeks with Western officials warning that Russia could be helping Tehran develop nuclear weapons. “The relationship runs much deeper than transactional ties,” Nicole Grajewski, an expert on the two countries’ relationship, told AFP. “Russia and Iran are now increasingly reliant on each other.” Prolonged instability in the Middle East could benefit Russia by “averting Washington’s attention and supplies from Ukraine,” an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies wrote. Even so, their partnership is limited by Russia’s desire to avoid harming its ties to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel, according to Bloomberg.

Putin prepares for ‘moment of triumph’ at BRICS summit

Source icon
Sources:  
Carnegie Endowment, Foreign Affairs

This month’s BRICS summit is “meant to send an unmistakable signal: Despite the West’s best efforts to isolate it, Russia has many friends around the world,” a Carnegie Endowment analyst wrote. The summit will be presented as “a moment of triumph” for Putin, who will host the growing bloc of non-Western countries, which together represent 45% of the world’s population, two experts wrote in Foreign Affairs. But behind the scenes, the organization is divided about its future: While Russia and China aim to position the group as an alternative to NATO and the West, Brazil and India want to use BRICS to reform the existing order and create a nonaligned camp amid rising geopolitical tensions, they argued.

AD