Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday condemned U.S. strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, characterizing the action as “absolutely unprovoked aggression” that has “no basis or justification.”
Putin’s comments came during a meeting in Moscow with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who hand-delivered a letter to the Russian president from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei requesting support to retaliate against the U.S. and Israel, according to Reuters.
Putin announced he stood ready to “provide assistance to the Iranian people,” an ambiguous statement that came the same day other Russian officials suggested Moscow, a long-standing ally to Tehran, is open to mediating an end to the conflict.
“Everything depends on what Iran needs,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday as he affirmed that Russia is ready to help Iran in various ways, depending on what the regime requests.
“We have offered our mediation efforts. This is concrete,” he continued, adding that Russia had made a “very important manifestation…of support for the Iranian side.”
Earlier this year, Trump floated having Russia help mediate a peace deal between Israel and Iran. However, after Putin offered to do so, Trump rejected the offer, saying he wanted Putin to prioritize bringing an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Putin’s latest statements on Monday addressing the Middle Eastern conflict signal harsher positioning against the U.S. than comments he made over the weekend responding to Trump’s announcement that the Pentagon “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities during targeted airstrikes.
Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin stressed the need to “stay neutral,” explaining that Russia is staying on the sidelines instead of directly coming to Tehran’s rescue due to the significant presence of Russian-speaking populations in Israel.
“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that almost two million people from the former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation reside in Israel. It is almost a Russian-speaking country today. And, undoubtedly, we always take this into account in Russia’s contemporary history,” Putin said, according to state news agency TASS.
He bristled at the idea that Russia is an unreliable friend to Tehran, saying that statements questioning Moscow’s loyalty to the regime were made by “provocateurs” trying to undermine the relationship.
While it continues to remain unclear what type of role, whether military or diplomatic, Moscow will play in the burgeoning conflict, Russian officials have remained consistent in condemning the U.S. for getting involved in Israel’s war against Iran.
Russia’s U.N. ambassador Vasily Nebenzia said Sunday that Washington had “opened a Pandora’s box,” promising unknown “catastrophes and suffering.”
“Washington reasserted that, to further the interests of its Israeli ally, it’s prepared… to gamble with the safety and well-being of humanity as a whole,” he said during a U.N. Security Council meeting.
Nebenzia further compared Trump’s decision to order strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities to Washington’s decision over two decades ago to get involved in a war against Iraq because of fears the country was developing chemical and biological weapons.
“Again, we’re being asked to believe the U.S.’s fairy tales, to once again inflict suffering on millions of people living in the Middle East. This cements our conviction that history has taught our U.S. colleagues nothing,” he said.
Russian officials had previously expressed concerns over potential radiation leaks after Israel carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Experts have downplayed such warnings, saying there is little risk of harmful leaks related to strikes, according to Newsweek.
“Sure, it’s easy to claim that these are targeted, carefully calculated operations, but we’ve already witnessed missiles going off course, triggering fires and explosions far from their intended targets,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the press during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian state media agency Tass reported.
“Radiation doesn’t check passports. It doesn’t care about ethnicity, borders, or permissions. It seeps into water, air, and soil—and it can remain there for decades, even centuries, destroying lives,” she continued.
Of particular concern to Putin is Iran’s Bushehr power plant. Built with the help of Russian specialists, some of whom still work on the site, the facility is Iran’s only nuclear power plant. Russia said Israel has guaranteed the safety of Russian specialists working at the plant and that it will not carry out strikes against the facility in response to Putin’s concerns. It’s considered unlikely that any strikes will be carried out against the Bushehr plant since it isn’t part of the Iranian program developing nuclear weapons.
“We maintain very smooth, trusting relations with Israel,” Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RBC-TV. “Only yesterday, Putin mentioned that there is an understanding with Israel that our specialists who work in Bushehr will not be in danger and under the threat of a strike.”
“Our dialogue with Israel and the trusting nature of this dialogue allow us to reach such understandings. This is very important,” he said.
Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, specifically mentioned the Bushehr plant during his Monday appearance with Putin.
“In the sphere of Iran’s nuclear program, Russia has always been a partner for us. It built the Bushehr nuclear power plant,” he said, according to the state TASS news agency.
Thanking Russia for condemning the actions of Israel and the U.S. against Iran, Araghchi added: “Russia today is on the right side of history and international law.”
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Gross, said Monday that the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities likely caused “very significant damage.”
Trump has said the U.S. strikes “obliterated” Tehran’s weapons program and recently expressed support for regime change in Iran, which could put Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran‘s last monarch, in power. Pahlavi is the son of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who became a close ally to the U.S. before being deposed in Iran’s 1979 revolution.
RUSSIA QUIET ON SAVING IRAN AS TRUMP WEIGHS ATTACKING TEHRAN
During a press conference in Paris on Monday, Pahlavi pitched himself as the steward of a “democratic transition” in his homeland and called on Khamenei to step down as Iran’s supreme leader.
Iran is at a “crossroads,” Pahlavi said. On one path lies “bloodshed and chaos,” on the other is a “peaceful democratic transition.”