Strategic Perspectives No. 9

Russia and the Iranian Nuclear Program: Replay or Breakthrough?

This paper focuses on Russian-Iranian relations in the context of the controversial Iranian Nuclear Program and their shared security interests. These include preventing any foreign or international military action against Iran. Russian diplomacy has been using its international influence to avoid this outcome while itself discouraging Iran from pursuing its nuclear enrichment program. Moscow’s effort to discourage the use of force against Iran is motivated by the fear that any foreign military action against nearby Iran would have regional spillover effects that would directly affect Russian security interests in ways difficult to predict and contain.

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