Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is traveling to Tehran on Monday for his first visit since 2007 to strengthen business ties in the aftermath of the Iran nuclear pact and bolster strategic alliances in the Middle East.
“The Tsar of the East in the heart of Tehran,” read the banner headline on the Etemad newspaper, whose front page featured a picture of the Russian leader. Putin is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the country’s highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and joins eight other heads of state attending the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, according to the Kremlin.
The two countries will discuss the civil war in Syria, where they both back President Bashar al-Assad, the fight against Islamist terrorism, and cooperation on gas and oil projects, according to Kremlin foreign policy official Yuri Ushakov. Putin is being accompanied on his trip by Gazprom PJSC Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller and Rosneft OJSC head Igor Sechin, Ushakov said.
The Russian leader’s visit is meant to help his country capitalize on the new freedom to operate in Iran that is to ensue from the July nuclear accord. Russia’s military intervention in Syria almost two months ago has drawn the countries strategically closer.
Russia sees as much as $4 billion in contracts in Iran over three years and as much as $20 billion over the next decade, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told Bloomberg ahead of the trip to Tehran. Representatives from several Russian companies have held talks in Iran in the runup to Putin’s visit and negotiations are ongoing, Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei told Etemad.
Russia, which has built Iran’s only functioning nuclear reactor in the southern city of Bushehr, signed an agreement with Iran last year to erect as many as eight more. The two countries are backing Assad in a war that has killed more than a quarter of a million people and allowed jihadist groups including Islamic State to spread their influence. Iran backs Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters who are battling alongside Assad’s troops.
Bloomberg
