Kremlin strikes $57.5bn deal to develop Tehran’s gas
In a rare international trip since launching the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with his Iranian counterpart to forge an anti-western coalition.
President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to shore up an anti-western coalition even as Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy giant, announced a $57.5bn deal to develop the Iranian gas and oil industry.
Iran rolled out a long red carpet for the Russian leader at Mehrabad airport, where he was greeted by Oil Minister Javad Owji, before talks with President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Gazprom’s deal with Iran’s national oil company involves developing the Kish and North Pars gas fields, as well as six oilfields.
It will also assist Iran in completing liquefied natural gas projects, and in constructing gas export pipelines.
Iran has the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia, but its efforts to boost production have been hindered by US sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.
The agreement signals a new eagerness to move closer to Iran.
The Kremlin had been wary about a formal alliance over fears that would harm its lucrative economic interests in the West.
However, those concerns became largely irrelevant when Russia overtook Iran as the world’s most-sanctioned country shortly after Mr Putin ordered tanks into Ukraine in February.
“The contact with Khamenei is very important,” Yury Ushakov, Mr Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said.
“On most issues, our positions are close or identical.”
Levan Dzhagaryan, the Russian ambassador to Iran, said the two countries were together in a “single fortress”.
Gazprom’s intentions are being watched closely in Europe amid concern that the Kremlin may decide not to restart gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline after a 10-day break for maintenance due to end on Thursday.
Reuters cited sources on Tuesday saying the pipeline would renew operations as scheduled, but with a limited capacity.
Mr Putin’s visit to Iran is only his second foreign trip since the start of the war in Ukraine, and his first outside the former Soviet Union.
In Moscow, it was hailed as evidence of a growing challenge to American hegemony.
Andrey Isayev, an MP with Mr Putin’s ruling party, told state television that Russia was becoming the leader of “the free world”.
Mr Putin was also due to hold talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, whose country has played a key role in negotiations over the war.
Mr Erdogan is said to be seeking Iranian and Russian approval for a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
The operation would target the YPG militia that the US credits with helping to defeat Islamic State, but which is denounced by Turkey as terrorists.
Separately, the Turkish company that makes the Bayraktar TB2 drones being used to such devastating effect against the invading army has vowed never to sell them to Russia.
“We are proud to be one of the symbols of Ukraine’s resistance,” Haluk Bayraktar, head of the Baykar company, told CNN.
Mr Putin and his inner circle may also believe that Iran is their best hope of finding asylum if they are forced from power, according to Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Mr Putin.
“The Russian president is undoubtedly a very cautious man,” he said.
“Iran has every chance of becoming for the Russian ruling class something like Argentina was for the Nazis.”
– The Times
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