Russia’s Stance Is Understandable

Why is Russia supportive when West is criticizing Iran’s handling of post-election developments? Commentary by Mahmoud Shouri.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who has attended the Group of Eight foreign ministers meeting in Trieste, Italy, said that isolating Iran is a wrong approach and the international community should maintain dialogue with Iran. Mahmoud Shouri, Russian affairs expert and member of Center for Strategic Research in Iranian Expediency Discernment Council explains why Russia has adopted a position different from other G8 members:

In terms of political structure and years of membership, Russia is not comparable to any other G8 members. In fact, if we named the group G7+1 it would make things clearer about Russia.

The result of Iranian presidential elections and the events occurring after, have divided countries: on one side stand Western countries which have (strongly) criticized Iran’s reaction to demonstrations. Meanwhile they have tried to bring Russia closer to their camp.

However, while taking a tough ideology-based stance against Iran, West believes that engagement with Iran over its nuclear program and other international and global issues is inevitable; therefore, it tries to make Russia voice its protest. Nevertheless, we saw that the G8 foreign ministers released no statement against Iran due to Russia’s opposition. Interestingly, Western countries made no efforts to pressure Russia for a critical statement. In fact, West does not want to adopt such a tough stance that would jeopardize the possibility of interaction in future. So, foresightfully, G8 tried to approach Russia’s stance towards Iran.

Russia’s stance towards Iran’s elections was understandable. This country has been charged with accusations on the process and result of its elections by West. So Russians’ approval of Iran’s elections backed up their counterclaims against West: that each country which has selected a different path has to face West’s confrontation. Russians’ support for West’s criticism against Iran’s elections was paradoxical and would eventually backfire.