This week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov travelled to Iran, where he met President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior officials. The visit followed meetings between Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 8 and September 1.
Media reports suggest that Moscow has offered to mediate between Washington and Tehran in negotiations over a possible nuclear agreement. The outcome remains uncertain, but several factors could give Russia an advantage as a mediator.
Russia is a major nuclear power and has extensive experience of the nuclear sector through Rosatom, one of the world’s leading civilian nuclear-energy companies. Moscow therefore has considerable technical and diplomatic expertise relevant to negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Russia has consistently supported Iran’s right to develop peaceful domestic nuclear energy and is building two new units at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. At the same time, Moscow opposes Iran acquiring or developing nuclear weapons, particularly given the proximity of its borders.
Relations between Russia and Iran, which were long strained, have improved significantly in recent years. One source of the growing trust between the two countries has been their shared experience of confrontation with the United States, direct in the case of Iran and indirect through Russia’s involvement in proxy conflicts.
In 2022, Washington declared its aim of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia. Iran subsequently provided Russia with Shahed drone technology.
In early 2025, Russia and Iran signed the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, establishing a framework for expanded economic, political and military cooperation. Russia proposed including a mutual military-assistance clause, but Iran declined.
Against that background, criticism that Moscow abandoned Tehran during the 12-day war of 2025 and the continuing conflict is misplaced. Russia has remained a diplomatic and military partner to Iran and has honoured its commitments to the relationship.
Helping the United States reach a new nuclear agreement with Iran would also serve Russia’s interests. Moscow considers Iran to have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of US and Israeli attacks, while recognising the extensive damage inflicted on the country. Russia also hopes that peace would revive the International North-South Transport Corridor to India, an important logistical project that passes through Iran.
Moscow also views the Arab Gulf monarchies as valuable allies and wants to avoid damaging those relationships through Iran’s retaliatory strikes against their territories. Although higher oil prices resulting from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have provided Russia with short-term financial gains, Moscow has no interest in prolonging the blockade.
Russia is also well placed to mediate because it participated in the eight-party negotiations that led to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, concerning Iran’s nuclear programme.
The United States subsequently withdrew from the agreement, while France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union weakened their standing in both Washington and Tehran through their subsequent actions.
This has effectively left US President Donald Trump with Russia and China as potential partners in efforts to address the issue. Russia has already stepped up its mediation efforts, with Putin reportedly communicating an Iranian proposal to Trump by telephone this month. At the same time, intensive US diplomatic activity aimed at ending the war in Ukraine has increased, with Trump applying pressure on Kyiv for the first time.
Trump has also said that an unprecedented meeting with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen would be appropriate if its focus were nuclear denuclearisation.
The crises unfolding across Eurasia, from Ukraine to Iran and Taiwan, are closely connected because they involve the principal geopolitical and military powers of the contemporary world: the United States, China and Russia.
The possibility of the three countries’ leaders discussing a trilateral meeting for the first time is significant beyond the realm of political commentary.
It may not mark the beginning of a new world order, but it could represent a modest step towards replacing war with diplomacy.
