ABSTRACT
Since the end of the 1980s, Iran and Russia have sought to increase their energy cooperation in the nuclear, oil and gas sectors. Both the Iranian government’s decision to shift foreign policy interests towards the East and US unilateral sanctions against Iran have pushed Iranian foreign policy towards increased cooperation with Russia. This decision of the Islamic Republic was first initiated under the presidency of Rafsanjani and later intensified by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Ahmadinejad after his victory in the Iranian presidential elections in 2005. It emerged in light of Iran’s need to bypass Western restrictions on technology transfers in the nuclear, aviation and military sectors. Nevertheless, there is a debate inside the Islamic Republic’s political establishment about whether this foreign policy decision is beneficial for Iran. The reformist and pragmatic conservative factions are using the Iran–Russia dispute on dividing the Caspian Sea to justify their opposition to an alliance with Russia. Furthermore, after the contested June 2009 election, the president and the Supreme Leader have been accused of selling Iranian national interest to Moscow and of focusing on a rapprochement with Russia’s autocratic government in order to stop the internal bottom-up (par le bas) democratization process. 1
