Putin likes the Iran deal
REUTERS/Alexei Nikolsky/RIA Novosti/Kremlin
In fact, Putin took some serious credit for it.
"The deal on Iran nuclear program is based on the approach articulated by President Vladimir Putin," the Russian Foreign Ministry tweeted on Tuesday.
Putin added, in a statement released by the Kremlin, that the deal is means that its "bilateral relations with Iran will receive a new impetus and will no longer be influenced by external factors."
The world powers and Iran struck a landmark deal on Tuesday to curb Iran's nuclear program for at least 10 years in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions.
It appears Russia is in a position to benefit both strategically and financially.
"Russia is ... poised to benefit geopolitically from the nuclear accord, because Iran is likely to emerge from this process as a newly empowered state," Paul N. Schwartz, a nonresident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a paper back in June.
Iran and Russia are the primary supporters of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, which has been fighting largely Sunni uprising for more than 4 years, and both oppose many Saudi initiatives.
"In general, such an outcome would accrue to the benefit of Russia, which stands to gain the most from a newly empowered Iran able to more effectively pursue its Middle East agenda," Schwartz wrote.
Iranian media
"Russia had long been Iran's primary arms supplier, with total sales of nearly $3.4 billion between 1991 and 2010," Schwartz noted. "Russia hopes that the lifting of US sanctions will lead to a resumption of large-scale arms transfers."
Reuters Graphics
Consequently, Moscow welcomes the new era and even appears to be calling for Iran - which the US considers the "the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism" - to join the international community's fight against terrorism.
"In the next five years deliveries of arms to Iran will be possible, under the conditions of the relevant procedures, notification and verification by the U.N. Security Council," Russia foreign minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly said in comments broadcast from Vienna by Russian television, according to the Moscow Times.
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