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Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday that Moscow was ready to “do everything” in its power to help settle the war in the Middle East, according to Russian news agencies, as the two leaders met in Turkmenistan ahead of a regional summit.
“We are ready to do everything that is in our power to contribute to the settlement of this situation,” Putin said, according to Russian media.
He added that Iran had made “real efforts to end the war” since US-Israeli attacks began on February 28.
The Russian leader also pointed to what he called the “positive evolution” of relations between Moscow and Tehran, two of the world’s most heavily sanctioned nations.
Russia and Iran have strengthened diplomatic and military cooperation since Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, with the two countries becoming increasingly reliant on one another.
Ukraine and Western governments have accused Iran of supplying Russia with Shahed drones and short-range missiles for use in that war, while Russia has been accused of providing Iran with data for its attacks on US targets in the Middle East.
Thursday’s meeting was not the first recent contact between the two leaders.
Putin and Pezeshkian also spoke on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan last month, and in a phone call on Wednesday, Putin told Pezeshkian he was ready to help mediate the Middle East conflict, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.
The renewed contacts come as diplomatic tracks elsewhere appear stalled.
Pezeshkian said this week that talks between Iran and the United States were “meaningless,” and efforts to resolve Russia’s war in Ukraine likewise remain deadlocked even as both sides step up attacks.
The Putin-Pezeshkian meeting was one of several bilateral talks scheduled on the sidelines of the Commonwealth of Independent States summit, which opens Friday in the Caspian Sea resort of Avaza, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said.
Leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Turkmenistan and other Central Asian states are due to attend alongside Putin and Pezeshkian.
The CIS was established in 1991 to ease the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse and preserve ties among its former republics.
Membership has thinned over the years: Georgia withdrew after its 2008 war with Russia, Ukraine halted participation following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and Moldova left the bloc in 2023 as it pursued closer ties with the European Union.
For Russia, which has found itself increasingly isolated since launching the war in Ukraine, the CIS serves as evidence that it “actually has the orbit and that it has its own sphere of influence that is fortified and institutionalised,” Temur Umarov, a researcher at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, told AFP.
Still, the summit comes as several CIS members look to diversify their economic and diplomatic partnerships, including by deepening ties with China and Western nations. Zhanibek Arynov, a Kazakhstan-based researcher specializing in Central Asian geopolitics, told AFP that Moscow’s influence over the bloc has limits.
“Even if Russia decides to use this platform to propagate anti-Western or anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, that does not mean the other members will automatically subscribe to its position,” Arynov said.
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