Russia Considering Iranian Support To Evade Western Sanctions

(New York, N.Y.) — With the Russian economy experiencing a sharp decline in the wake of Western sanctions, Moscow is reportedly considering an offer from the Islamic Republic of Iran to participate in a scheme for sanctions evasion. In exchange for Russia’s support for a new nuclear deal, Iran will reportedly decline to enforce sanctions on Russia and support the sale of Russian oil. Further, Iran stands to make gains militarily through a significant arms agreement with Moscow that includes war planes and naval vessels.

Iran’s economy has been under increasingly tight Western sanctions for years, prompting the Iranian regime to devise new ways of evading the sanctions imposed on them. Russia stands to gain from Iran’s tested methods, which includes operating a system of “accounts in foreign commercial banks, proxy companies registered outside the country, firms that coordinate the banned trade, and a transaction clearinghouse within Iran” to facilitate trade. Together, the two countries could coordinate with one another to ease the economic pressure placed on them by the West--pressure that must remain. 

Previously, Tehran and Moscow have cooperated economically in certain instances, including illicit trade. In 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated targets involved in an illicit scheme in which the Islamic Republic worked with Russian companies to provide millions of barrels of oil to the Syrian government. In exchange, Damascus facilitated the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force for transfer to Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The IRGC, Hamas and Hezbollah are each U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. 

To read United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)’s resource Tehran’s Ties With Beijing And Moscow, please click here. 

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