Russia

Russia is a nuclear-armed state and permanent UN Security Council member that has waged full-scale war on Ukraine since February 2022, giving it leverage over European energy and grain markets that outlasts any single battlefield outcome.

It backs Iran diplomatically and economically without formally joining Tehran's war. Envoy Dmitry Medvedev, attending funeral rites in Tehran on 4 July, reaffirmed Russia's treaty with Iran and likened Tehran's power to shut the Strait of Hormuz to holding a nuclear weapon, while Putin himself skipped the funeral. Moscow has repeatedly offered to take custody of Iran's stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium, an offer Tehran has not acted on.

At the IAEA, Russia has joined China in blocking board resolutions that would restore inspectors' access to Iranian nuclear sites, leaving hundreds of kilograms of enriched uranium unaccounted for by the watchdog's own count. The two states are also linking their domestic bank-card networks, Iran's Shetab system and Russia's Mir, to build payment channels that route around Western sanctions infrastructure, an alignment that now stretches from nuclear diplomacy into everyday banking.