Putin is visiting Iran for the first time in 8 years - and promising to export nuclear equipment to the country
Russia was one of the six world powers that signed a landmark agreement with Iran this past July aimed at curbing the country's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The Russian decree, issued on the same day as Putin arrived in Iran on an official visit, said Russian firms were now authorized to export hardware and to provide financial and technical advice to assist Iran in three specific areas of the country's infrastructure.
The decree allows Russia to help modify two cascades at Iran's Fordow uranium enrichment plant, to support Iranian efforts to export enriched uranium in exchange for raw uranium supplies, and to help Iran modernize its Arak heavy water reactor.
Under the nuclear agreement, Iran will modify the uranium enrichment cascades in Fordow, a once-secret facility built inside of a mountain on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps base, in order to instead enrich non-fissile materials. Iran must also reduce ts supply of low-enriched uranium, which stood at 7,845 kilograms in August, down to 300 kilograms. And Iran has to modify its heavy water reactor at Arak so that it will be unable to produce plutonium for a nuclear weapon.
The Russian decree paves the way for Moscow to assist Iran in meeting these requirements under the deal, which will lift international sanctions on Iran in exchange for at least a decade of curbs on the country's nuclear activity.
At the same time, it could mean a closer economic and strategic relationship between the two countries, which have a number of shared interests throughout the Middle East.
The visit is itself a sign of the countries moving closer together now that the nuclear deal has been signed: this is Putin's first visit to Tehran since 2007.
Putin, who will attend a summit of gas exporting countries on Monday in Tehran, is also expected to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and to discuss the Syria conflict.