cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6632765
- Iran has sold nearly $3 billion worth of missiles to Russia to aid President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, according to a Western security official.
- The purchases have included hundreds of Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles, nearly 500 other short-range ballistic missiles and approximately 200 surface-to-air missiles.
- Russia has spent more than the equivalent of $4 billion on Iranian military equipment since late 2021.
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Contracts with Moscow starting from October 2021 — before the war began — for ballistic and surface-to-air missiles amount to roughly $2.7 billion, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Moscow and Tehran have drawn closer since Putin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has triggered sweeping sanctions against Moscow and the Kremlin’s most serious confrontation with the West since the Cold War, while Iran’s provision of weapons to Russia has further deepened the two countries’ partnership.
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Iran has delivered millions of rounds of ammunition and shells, according to the assessment, which doesn’t represent the entirety of what Moscow has purchased from Tehran as more equipment is expected to be supplied.
Tehran has also supplied Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones and shared technology that has enabled Russia to manufacture them domestically under the name “Geran-2” as part of a $1.75 billion contract signed at the beginning of 2023.
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Iran, whose government is crushing ongoing violent protests, sought to deepen its ties with Russia starting in the 2010s, smarting from the West’s ability to isolate it over the country’s nuclear program.
While Iran signed a strategic partnership with Russia in January 2025, it doesn’t contain a mutual-defense pact and Moscow didn’t offer any tangible assistance to Tehran during Israeli and US strikes on Iran last year. Russia is building a trade route with Tehran connecting to India to try to weaken the impact of sanctions, and officials have discussed boosting financial and banking cooperation.