Relations between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Safavid Iran officially commenced in 1521, with the Rurikids and Safavids in power respectively. Past and present contact between Russia and Iran have long been complicatedly multi-faceted; often wavering between collaboration and rivalry. The two nations have a long history of geographic, economic, and socio-political interaction. Mutual relations have often been turbulent, and dormant at other times.
Until 1720, on the surface, relations between Iran and Russia were largely friendly and the two operated on a level of equity. After 1720, with Peter the Great's attack on Iran and the establishment of the Russian Empire, the first of a long series of campaigns was initiated against Iran and the Caucasus. The Russian Empire had an oppressive role in Iran during the 19th and early 20th centuries which harmed Iran's development, and during most of the ensuing Soviet period, the shadow of the "big northern neighbour" continued to impend, and the Soviet Union was referred to as "Lesser Satan" by first Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini, citing its atheistic communist ideology. However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, the two nations have generally enjoyed very close cordial relations. Iran and Russia are strategic allies and form an axis in the Caucasus alongside Armenia. Iran and Russia are also military allies in the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine; and partners in Afghanistan and post-Soviet Central Asia. Russia is also the chief supplier of arms and weaponry to Iran. Due to international economic sanctions on Iran, Russia has become a key trading partner, especially in regard to the former's excess oil reserves. Currently Russia and Iran share a close economic and military alliance, and both countries are subject to heavy sanctions by most Western nations.
Militarily, Iran is the only country in West Asia that was offered—in 2007—to join the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Russia-based international treaty organization that parallels the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). As soon as he became president, Vladimir Putin pursued close friendship with Iran and deepened Russian military cooperation with Iran and Syria. In 2015, Putin ordered a military intervention in Syria, supporting the Assad regime and its Iranian allies with an aerial bombing campaign against the Syrian opposition. While much of the Iranian military uses Iranian-manufactured weapons and domestic hardware, Iran still purchases some weapons systems from Russia. In turn, Iran assisted Russia with its drone technology and other military technology during the Russo-Ukrainian war. U.S. government officials and some security scholarsJulian G. Waller, Elizabeth Wishnick, Margaret Sparling, and Michael Connell. (January 2025). The Evolving Russia-Iran Relationship : Political, Military, and Economic Dimensions of an Improving Partnership. Center for Naval Analyses website 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2025. believe the two countries have formed a "full-fledged defense partnership".Shine, Sima, et al. Deepening Cooperation between Iran and Russia. Institute for National Security Studies, 2023. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep47005. Retrieved 14 Apr. 2025.
Iran has its embassy in Moscow and consulates in the cities of Astrakhan and Kazan. Russia has its embassy in Tehran, and consulates in Rasht and Isfahan.
History
Pre-Safavid era Contacts between Russians and Persians have a long history, extending back more than a millennium. There were known commercial exchanges as early as the 8th century AD between Persia and the Rus' principalities. They were interrupted by the Mongol invasions in the 13th and 14th centuries, but started up again in the 15th century with the rise of the state of Muscovy. In the 9th–11th century AD, there were repetitive raiding parties undertaken by the Rus' between 864 and 1041 on the Caspian Sea shores of what is today Iran, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan as part of the Caspian expeditions of the Rus'.Logan (1992), p. 201
Initially, the Rus' appeared in Serkland during the 9th century, traveling as merchants along the Volga trade route while selling furs, honey, and slaves. The first small-scale raids took place in the late 9th and early 10th century, and the Rus' undertook the first large-scale expedition in 913; having arrived on 500 ships, they pillaged the Gorgan region (within present day Iran), as well the areas of Gilan and Mazandaran, taking slaves and goods.
Safavid Empire–Grand Duchy of Muscovy It was not until the 16th century that formal diplomatic contacts were established between Persia and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, with the latter acting as an intermediary in the trade between England and Persia. Transporting goods across Muscovite territory meant that the English could avoid the zones under Ottoman and Portuguese control. The Muscovy Company (also known as the Russian Company) was founded in 1553 to expand the trade routes across the Caspian sea. Moscow's role as an intermediary in exchanges between Britain and Persia led Muscovite traders to set up business in urban centres across Persia, as far south as Kashan. The victories over the Kazan Khanate in 1552 and the Astrakhan Khanate in 1556 by Tsar Ivan IV (r. 1533–84) revived trade between Iran and the Tsardom of Russia via the Volga-Caspian route and marked the first penetration of the Caucasus and the Caspian area by the Tsardom. Though these commercial exchanges in the latter half of the 16th century were limited in scope, they nonetheless indicate that the fledgling entente between the two countries emerged as a result of opposition to the neighboring Ottoman Empire.
Diplomatic relations between the Grand Duchy of Muscovy and Iran date back to 1521, when the Safavid Shah Ismail I sent an emissary to visit the Grand Prince Vasili III. As the first diplomatic contacts between the two countries was being established, Shah Ismail was also working hard with the aim of joining forces against their mutual enemy, neighboring Ottoman Turkey. On several occasions, Iran offered the Grand Duchy of Muscovy a deal exchanging a part of its territory (for example Derbent and Baku in 1586) for its support in its wars against their Ottoman archrivals. In 1552–53, Safavid Iran and the Tsardom of Russia exchanged ambassadors for the first time, and, starting in 1586, they established a regular diplomatic relationship. In 1650, extensive contact between the two people, culminated in the Russo-Persian War (1651–53), after which the Tsardom of Russia had to cede its footholds in the North Caucasus to the Safavids. In the 1660s the famous Russian Cossack ataman Stenka Razin raided, and occasionally wintered at, Persia's north coast, creating diplomatic problems for the Tsar of Russia in his dealings with the Persian Shah. The Russian song telling the tragic semi-legendary story of Razin's relationship with a Persian princess remains popular to this day.
Peace reigned for many decades between the two peoples after these conflicts, in which trade and migration of peoples flourished. The decline of the Safavid and Ottoman state saw the rise of Imperial Russia on the other hand. After the fall of Shah Sultan Husayn brought the Safavid dynasty to an end in 1722, the greatest threats facing Persia were Russian and Ottoman ambitions for territorial expansion in the Caspian region—north-western Persia specifically. During the Safavid period, the power of the Grand Duchy of Muscovy (and later the Tsardom of Russia until 1721) and Persian power was relatively evenly balanced, though after Peter the Great proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721, this balance began to shift.
Russian Empire Overall, the common anti-Ottoman struggle served as the main common political interest for Iran and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy (later the Tsardom of Russia, and then the Russian Empire) throughout the period of Safavid rule, with several attempts to conclude an anti-Ottoman military treaty. Following Shah Husayn's fall, the relationship lost its symmetry, but it was largely restored under Nader Shah.
In his later years of rule, Peter the Great found himself in a strong enough position to increase Russian influence more southwards in the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, challenging both the Safavids and the Ottomans. He made the city of Astrakhan his base for his hostilities against Persia, created a shipyard, and attacked the weakened Safavids in the Russo-Persian War (1722–1723), capturing many of its territories in the Caucasus and northern mainland Iran for several years. After several years of political chaos in Persia following the fall of the Safavids, a new and powerful Persian empire was born under the highly successful military leader Nader Shah. Fearing a costly war which would most likely be lost against Nader and also being flanked by the Turks in the west, the Russians were forced to give back all territories and retreat from the entire Caucasus and northern mainland Iran as according to the Treaty of Resht (1732) and Treaty of Ganja (1735) during the reign of Anna of Russia. The terms of the treaty also included the first instance of close Russo-Iranian collaboration against a common enemy, in this case the Ottoman Turks. Relations sooned soured, however, after Nader Shah accused the Russians of conspiring against him. The invasion of Dagestan in 1741 was partially directed against Russia; thus the Terek River was left on a high state of alert until Nader Shah's death.
Karim Khan Zand promised the Russians certain territories in the northern frontier if they helped him against enemies like the Ottomans.
Qajar Persia–Russian Empire Iranian-Russian relations particularly picked up again following the death of Nader Shah and the dissolution of his Afsharid dynasty which gave eventually way to the Qajarid dynasty in the mid-18th century. The first Qajar Persian ambassador to Russia was Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi. After the rule of Agha Mohammad Khan, who stabilized the nation and re-established Iranian suzerainty in the Caucasus, the Qajarid government was quickly absorbed with managing domestic turmoil, while rival colonial powers rapidly sought a stable foothold in the region. While the Portuguese, British, and Dutch competed for the south and southeast of Persia in the Persian Gulf, the Russian Empire largely was left unchallenged in the north as it plunged southward to establish dominance in Persia's northern territories. Plagued with internal politics, the Qajarid government found itself incapable of rising to the challenge of facing its northern threat from Russia.