Russia-Iran Relations: Is There a Change? Will Russia help the US with Iran ? Israeli leverage over Russia vis-à-vis Iran. From Mark N. Katz There has been an ongoing debate here at MESH and elsewhere about whether Israel can, will, or should launch an attack against Iran to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. One possible method by which such an attack might be degraded or even deterred is if Russia sells the advanced version of its S-300 missile defense system to Iran. But while Tehran has actively sought this weapons system from Moscow and press reports pop up from time about how Russia has agreed to provide it to Iran (or even that Moscow is doing so), the Kremlin has not yet done so.
Further, there is reason to believe that it will not do so in future either. Moscow now has good relations with Israel, which the Kremlin values for several reasons: the growing Russian-Israeli trade relationship, Israeli security assistance in dealing with Muslim opposition forces inside Russia, and the addition of Israeli technology which greatly enhances Moscow’s ability to sell arms to India in particular. Russian-Iranian Relations: Functional Dysfunction (July-August 2. Vol. 4 No. 1 July-August 2009 Russian-Iranian Relations: Functional Dysfunction by Mark N. Katz Mark N. D uring his visit to Moscow earlier this month, US President Barack Obama was said to have been primarily concerned with winning Russian cooperation vis-à-vis Iran. Although the Russian-Iranian relationship is riddled with mistrust and conflicts of interest, this does not give Moscow a compelling interest to facilitate an American-Iranian rapprochement or pressure Tehran to stand down.
Background The Obama administration's initial hopes for improving relations with both Russia and Iran may have been party based on the knowledge that Russian-Iranian relations have been difficult, both in the past and at present. Equally revealing is Iran's stalled bid to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a multilateral group comprised of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Nuclear Proliferation. Russian-Iranian Relations. Putin, Ahmadinejad & Iranian nuclear cri. Role of Iran and Afghanistan in US-Russian. Russian Perceptions on the Iranian Nucle. Iran_view_moscow.