RUSSIA PERSPECTIVE

Moscow observes the Iran-United States confrontation with the calculated cynicism of a power that finds strategic advantages in it whilst measuring the risks. Iran International — a diaspora media outlet whose coverage is closely followed in Moscow — documents the real economic consequences of the conflict on Iran: collapse of foreign trade, capital flight, isolation from global financial markets.

Russia has emerged as Iran's principal wartime trading partner — a mutually beneficial relationship that Western sanctions have paradoxically strengthened. Moscow purchases Iranian oil at reduced prices, supplies industrial components, and maintains financial channels beyond SWIFT's reach. Yet this relationship has structural limits that Moscow Times notes with surprising candour: Russia itself faces constraints from its war in Ukraine, and its support for Tehran cannot exceed a certain threshold without risking further tension with Washington.

The Russian paradox is this: conflict in Iran weakens a country Moscow has reason to keep strong as an anti-Western partner. Should Iran weaken excessively, it will be forced to accept unfavourable terms — and Russia loses regional leverage. If Iran remains strong enough to resist without capitulating, it will continue to disrupt the Hormuz Strait — maintaining elevated oil prices, a windfall for Russian war finances. Moscow calibrates this ambiguity carefully.