Military Relations Between Russia and Iran in the Putin Period

Despite ideological and political differences, Iran and Russia have continued to keep good track of relationship throughout their history. The relations became even better since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. Following Vladimir Putin's rise to power in 2000, Russia unilaterally withdrew from the "Gore-Chernomyrdin" agreement, which has restricted military relations between Tehran and Moscow for many years. Thus, military cooperation for later periods has become one of the most important fields of cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. After the 2000s, Moscow provided significant amount of military equipment to Iranian regime in order to advance its regional influence. Iranian-Russian military relations have been among the main issues that have led to an increase in the anxiety of countries such as Israel and the USA. Thus, the military relations between Tehran and Moscow are among the most controversial issues of the 21st century's international system. In this context, the aim of this study is to examine and define the military relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation in the period after 2000 and to explain the factors that have affected such relations. In this context, the foreign policy of Russia and Iran and the course of diplomatic relations between the two countries are examined in the first chapter. The second chapter discusses the military structure of Russia and Iran, their defense policies and national defense forces. In the third chapter, after examining the historical background of the military relations between Moscow and Tehran, the nature of these relations and the areas that they cover in the Putin era are investigated. Factors such as USA, Israel, Iranian Nuclear Studies and some internal dynamics affecting the military relations between Moscow and Tehran are looked at in the fourth chapter.