The Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment that Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev arrived in Iran on Nov. 8, likely to talk about the supply of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia.
The ISW suggests that the public announcement of Patrushev’s arrival aims to draw the attention of an international audience to the deepening partnership between Moscow and Tehran and “to implicitly highlight that a high-ranking Russian official turned to Iran for help in Ukraine.”
“Tehran is likely eager to publicly signal this rebalancing of its strategic partnership with Moscow, especially to regional Iranian adversaries with which the Kremlin occasionally cooperates, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia,” the ISW reports.
