Putin Finds a New Ally in Iran, a Fellow Outcast
But the Russian invasion of Ukraine changed the calculus.

Increasingly cut off from Western markets, Russia is looking to Iran as an economic partner, as well as for expertise in skirting sanctions.

Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, has signed a nonbinding $40 billion deal to help develop gas and oil fields in Iran, according to Iranian reports. And, American officials say, Russia is looking to buy much-needed combat drones from Iran for use over Ukraine, a matter that was not addressed publicly in Tuesday’s meetings.

Ahead of Mr. Putin’s visit, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told an Iranian broadcaster that Iran and Russia could soon sign a treaty on strategic cooperation that would expand their collaboration in banking and finance. He evoked the 16th-century diplomacy between Russia and Persia to set the scene for what he promised would be a new era of friendship between Tehran and Moscow.

The courtship between the two countries started even before the war began on Feb. 24, as Russia’s tensions with the West were escalating. In January, Mr. Raisi, the Iranian president, went to Moscow. Then last month, the two men met again at a regional summit in Turkmenistan, where the Russian leader sought to cement support from countries on the Caspian Sea.

On Tuesday, as he and Mr. Raisi met for the third time this year, Mr. Putin said the two countries’ relations were “developing at a good pace” in economic, security and regional affairs. He said he and Mr. Raisi had agreed to strengthen cooperation in energy, industry and transportation, and to increasingly use national currencies — rather than the U.S. dollar — to denominate their trade.