Iranian- Russian Relations: Partnership and Discord

Abstract

The Maghreb Review, Vol. 36, 2, 2011 © The Maghreb Review 2011 This publication is printed on longlife paper IRANIAN- RUSSIAN RELATIONS: PARTNERSHIP AND DISCORD BY ALI GRANMAYEH* INTRODUCTION The ruling regimes in both Tehran and Moscow represent new entities in political geography. The regime change took place in Iran in early 1979, when the monarchical system collapsed through a revolution. Likewise, Russia faced a regime change in late 1991, when the Russian Federation achieved independence following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Iran had been occupied or threatened on numerous occasions by its powerful northern neighbour. Now there is no Tsarist colonial empire or a bullying Communist superpower located on Iranian borders. Yet in the perception of most Iranians, the Russian Federation has inherited the legacy of the Soviet Union. In spite of wide-range contacts, the image of the Soviet Union was more negative than positive in Iran. It was negative because of Moscow’s frequent interference in Iranian affairs during and immediately after the second world war. The peaks of the Kremlin’s misconduct were the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941 and implanting a puppet regime in the zone occupied by the Red Army in north-western Iran in 1945. With such experience, Iran had justifiably been worried that it might be victimized again through an East-West compromise or an East-West conflict. However, it should be noted that the Soviet government made successful efforts from the mid-1960s to improve its image through expanding economic cooperation with Iran. Before the change in the Iranian regime in 1979, the Soviet government built Iran’s first steel mill in Isfahan, when Iran’s Western allies failed to help with this Iranian aspiration. Furthermore, Moscow volunteered to import natural gas from Iran, while none of Iran’s Western partners in oil industry had such a project on their agenda. During the first decade of the new Islamic regime, Iran’s relations with the Soviet Union could not be described as cordial. In 1979, Iran stopped the export of natural gas and severely criticized the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union had been considered a military supporter of Iraq following the invasion of Iranian territory in September 1980. Iran also blamed the flow of 3 million Afghan refugees into its territory on Soviet operations in Afghanistan. The foundation of the Russian Federation in 1991 opened a new chapter in the relations between Moscow and the West, which Iran’s ideological government did not appreciate. In a foreign policy document titled ‘Strategy for Russia’ issued by the new Russian government, priority was given to Russia’s relations with the West and Russia’s Near Abroad rather than countries such as Iran. Yet * London Middle East Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London IRANIAN-RUSSIAN RELATIONS: PARTNERSHIP AND DISCORD 189 the foreign policy administration was advised in the same document to look after Russian interests in relations with politically and economically important countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and Iran.1 The disintegration of the Soviet Union and formation of the Russian Federation coincided with the early phase of Iran’s post-Khomeini foreign policy and the emergence of Iran as a regional power following the multinational war against Iraq and the liberation of Kuwait. This study is aimed at verifying the extent of partnership and the origins of discord between Moscow and Tehran over the main topics of their relations. TOPICS IN IRANIAN-RUSSIAN RELATIONS Nuclear power plant Since 1975 a German company, Seimens, had been engaged in the construction of Iran’s first nuclear plant in Port Bushehr on the Persian Gulf. With the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, Siemens abandoned the job. When the war ended in 1988, neither the Germans nor any other Western company accepted Iran’s invitation to construct this plant. Russia was the only country which was technically capable and politically ready to do business with Iran over this issue. Consequently, a contract was signed in 1995 for the construction of the nuclear power plant on the same site in Bushehr between Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and the Russian...