Some in Moscow Now Urging Expanded Russian Cooperation with Iran in Former Soviet Space

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 27 – Russian foreign policy experts at Moscow’s Danilevsky Institute for Russian-Slavic Research say that Iran both because of its growing political weight in the region and its cooperation with can play a significant and welcome role as a “stabilizing” presence in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

            “The close Russian-Iran cooperation there can stop the advance not only of Turkey [into those regions] but also that of the collective West,” scholars at the institute say. And they call for the creation of “a military union” of Russia, Iran and Armenia, which could soon become “a block of five” with the addition of Belarus and Tajikistan (eurasiatoday.ru/analytics/10961- иран-как-фактор-стабильности-на-постсоветском-пространстве.html).

            Such a grouping would constitute “a serious obstacle to the plans of NATO,” the institute says. But even more, as “a union of two country-civilizations, Russia and Iran,” it would become “not only a geopolitical but a civilizational alternative to the Western globalist project” and thus merits widespread support.

            Unfortunately, the Danilevsky Institute says, there are some in Moscow, still overly “pro-Western” who “fear serious Russian-Iranian cooperation” or who fear that any moves in that direction will be threaten Russia’s control of the region. But in fact, the institute insists, expanded Iranian activities in the region will only help Russia by weakening the West.