Can Iran Still Trust Russia?

[ArashImv]

Salam all,

 

Just finished my sixth vlog on Youtube called "Can Iran Still Trust Russia?" which deals with the purchase of the S-300 system and Russia's attitude vis-a-vis Iran. Let me know what you think.

 

Watch it here:

 

More detailed description of the video: 

After nine years, Russia delivered Almaz-Antey's S300 missile to Iran in April, 2016. But why the delay? Find out here.

The political détente between Iran and Russia began in 1989. In that year, Russian Foreign Minister Shevardnadze met Ayatollah Khomeini after the Soviet pullout in Afghanistan. A few months later, president Rafsanjani met with Mikhail Gorbachev to discuss cooperation on the use of peaceful atomic energy. These series of meetings spawned atomic cooperation agreements to be signed in 1992. The Soviet Union's weakness and its ultimate dissolution accelerated calls within Russia to revive Russia's nuclear industry abroad.

From the mid-2000s, both countries had seen relations deteriorate. In Iran, the deregulation of the Khatami administration shifted towards an autarky-minded Ahmadinejad government insisting on Iran autonomously developing a full nuclear cycle. 

Russia's buildup after the Soviet collapse left it desperate to maintain Iran as a purchasing market. The Russians provided Iran with light-water nuclear reactors (LWRS) in 1992, the Bushehr plant was reconstructed through a $1 billion contract in 1995 and other side agreements included the negotiated delivery of a gas-centrifuge uranium enrichment facility. With the prospects of an increasingly independent Iran ahead and rapprochement with Washington, Russia decided to punish the Iranians through various international mechanisms.

The delay of the S300 therefore serves as a case study illuminating the selfish economic interests of two states on the one hand, and the indifference by Russia to enhance regional security on the other.
 

 

 

[Hidaren]

9 hours ago, ArashImv said:

Salam all,

 

Just finished my sixth vlog on Youtube called "Can Iran Still Trust Russia?" which deals with the purchase of the S-300 system and Russia's attitude vis-a-vis Iran. Let me know what you think.

 

Watch it here:

 

More detailed description of the video: 

After nine years, Russia delivered Almaz-Antey's S300 missile to Iran in April, 2016. But why the delay? Find out here.

The political détente between Iran and Russia began in 1989. In that year, Russian Foreign Minister Shevardnadze met Ayatollah Khomeini after the Soviet pullout in Afghanistan. A few months later, president Rafsanjani met with Mikhail Gorbachev to discuss cooperation on the use of peaceful atomic energy. These series of meetings spawned atomic cooperation agreements to be signed in 1992. The Soviet Union's weakness and its ultimate dissolution accelerated calls within Russia to revive Russia's nuclear industry abroad.

From the mid-2000s, both countries had seen relations deteriorate. In Iran, the deregulation of the Khatami administration shifted towards an autarky-minded Ahmadinejad government insisting on Iran autonomously developing a full nuclear cycle. 

Russia's buildup after the Soviet collapse left it desperate to maintain Iran as a purchasing market. The Russians provided Iran with light-water nuclear reactors (LWRS) in 1992, the Bushehr plant was reconstructed through a $1 billion contract in 1995 and other side agreements included the negotiated delivery of a gas-centrifuge uranium enrichment facility. With the prospects of an increasingly independent Iran ahead and rapprochement with Washington, Russia decided to punish the Iranians through various international mechanisms.

The delay of the S300 therefore serves as a case study illuminating the selfish economic interests of two states on the one hand, and the indifference by Russia to enhance regional security on the other.
 

 

 

I've no time to watch or read what you wrote for us here,  due to sleepy eyes, maybe later I read them but I need to leave a comment.

The s300 or s400 won't gurantee a country's safety, no foreign weapon indeed can, because there's always he probable of war with that country so the seller countries will take precautions and even if they sell you a hundred s300 systems, they will not give you enough missiles required by the system, for instance you can buy millions of s300 but all you get is 10 missiles, and for some countries they don't sell enough fuel of the system, so even if you have the required missiles, you won't be able to shoot missiles unless you have the technology of producing the fuel which means again your combat ability is under the control of the seller nation. But there's something different from Iran:

In case of T70 tanks, Russia sold Iran some of them and when Iran checked out, they saw each one of them has a different engine, and when they investigated dipper, they understood that Russians have over 10 different producing lines which makes different versions of t70 tanks to prevent reversed engineering, but in case of Iran, it didn't work, for Iran is now producing t70 tanks in 10 different ways  .

getting back to s300, we understand that Iran only need them for revered engineering, not for using them, and this is what Russians know too, but as we know the inventor of this system are Russians and they know the weaknesses so they still think they can control unless Iran remove that weakness in the reversed engineered versions, just like the case of RQ370 drone.

To answer your first question, last: No, Iran can never fully trust Russians.

[ArashImv]

Would appreciate feedback from those who have watched the video.

[Ali_Hussain]

Nice video,  unfortunately I can't offer you any feed back as that was quite new information to me. 

[ErwinRommel]

Look both Russia and America are keen on keeping their allies + joining forces.