Russian delegation level at the funeral of Raisi shows Moscow’s lack of trust in Tehran

The level of the Russian Federation representatives at the funeral of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi may signal about the Kremlin’s growing distrust of Tehran.

Despite the close Russian-Iranian ties, including as for the Iranian nuclear program development and weapon supplies for the war against Ukraine, the Russian leadership publicly humiliated its Iranian counterparts in the process of paying an official visit to the farewell ceremony for President Raisi killed in a helicopter crash in the province of East Azerbaijan on May, 19.

Iran remains one of Russia’s few influential allies in the region. However, President Putin did not bother himself to attend the funeral personally. Moreover, Putin sent the Chairman of the State Duma lower house Vyacheslav Volodin, known for his sexual orientation, to convey his sympathy at memorial events. In fact, being part of the LGBT community is punishable by death in Iran and delegating a gay to the funeral of the President of Iran is a public insult to Tehran.

However, we believe that Volodin’s presence was not accidental, and Moscow wanted to demonstrate publicly its distrust of the Iranian side. As the information from Russian diplomatic circles in the Kremlin says, Raisi had allegedly negotiated with Western representatives to soften Iran’s foreign policy and reduce confrontation level with Israel and the United States. Thus, Moscow started doubting the reliability of Iran and the possibility of using its potential in the region to achieve the Kremlin’s goals in the Middle East.

It cannot be ruled out that the Kremlin conveyed its doubts to representatives of the IRGC shortly before the helicopter crash.

Thus, sending a gay man to the funeral may serve as a signal to the Iranians that Russia is aware of Tehran’s behind-the-scenes negotiations. This is Putin’s typical style of reaction to partners’ betrayal or unreliability facts.At the same time, we are more than convinced that Iran will ignore this humiliation in order to preserve the opportunity to use the Russian veto in the UN Security Council and continue financial economic cooperation with Moscow.