Putin praises Iran, deepens ties

Vladimir Putin met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the Kremlin on April 17, with Sergei Lavrov and presidential aide Yury Ushakov also in the room. (en.kremlin.ru) Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Araghchi was carrying a message from Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and held separate talks with Lavrov during a two-day working visit to Moscow. (mid.ru) The Russian side said the visit followed a January 17 summit in Moscow, where Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. (en.kremlin.ru) Lavrov’s ministry said the new treaty moved bilateral relations to a “comprehensive strategic partnership level” and that both sides reviewed trade, economic and regional issues. (mid.ru) The same Russian statement said the ministers discussed the Middle East, Syria, the South Caucasus, the Caspian region and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. (mid.ru) Moscow also tied the visit to a longer calendar of economic coordination. The Foreign Ministry pointed to the 18th meeting of the permanent Russian-Iranian commission on trade and economic cooperation, scheduled for April 23-25. (mid.ru) Four days later, on April 21, the Kremlin published Putin’s signature on the law ratifying the Russia-Iran strategic partnership treaty. The Kremlin said the pact calls for deeper relations “in all spheres of mutual interest” and closer coordination at regional and global levels. (en.kremlin.ru) That sequence placed Araghchi’s Moscow trip between the January signing ceremony and the April ratification, turning a political declaration into a formal state-to-state framework. (en.kremlin.ru 1) (en.kremlin.ru 2) The Mali and Sahel material in the prompt does not appear to be part of this specific April 17 Russia-Iran meeting. Russia did host Mali’s interim president, Assimi Goïta, in a separate Kremlin meeting on June 23, 2025. (en.kremlin.ru) In the Sahel, militant Islamist violence was rising on a separate track. The Africa Center for Strategic Studies said 23,968 fatalities linked to militant Islamist groups were reported across Africa in 2025, up 24% from the previous year, with the Sahel remaining the deadliest region. (africacenter.org) The immediate story, though, is narrower: Tehran sent its top diplomat to Putin, Moscow framed the trip around Khamenei’s message and the nuclear file, and Russia moved days later to ratify the new treaty. (mid.ru) (en.kremlin.ru)