Russia-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership treaty

The Iranian-Russian Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is a 20-year bilateral agreement signed in Moscow on 17 January 2025 by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Its 47 articles cover defence consultation, counter-terrorism, trade, energy, peaceful nuclear cooperation and cybersecurity.

Russia's State Duma ratified the treaty in April 2025 and Putin signed it into law on 21 April; Iran's Parliament and Guardian Council completed ratification by 11 June 2025. The treaty stops short of a mutual-defence pact: it commits each side only to consultation, not automatic military support, if the other is attacked, formalising rather than deepening ties built since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, attending Ali Khamenei's funeral in Tehran on 4 July 2026 as Vladimir Putin's envoy, invoked the treaty to argue that Iran's ability to disrupt the Strait of Hormuz is "equivalent to possession of a nuclear weapon" , the most explicit Russian endorsement yet of Hormuz as strategic leverage.