27.06.2005
Russia Won the Elections in Iran?
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Pavel Simonov, AIA Russian section
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President Vladimir Putin on Saturday congratulated the new Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "The construction of the Bushehr nuclear plant is nearing an end, and we are ready to continue cooperation with Iran in the nuclear energy sphere with respect to our international obligations in the non-proliferation area and to help find a mutually acceptable political solution to relevant issues," Putin said in a letter to Ahmadinejad.
Daily ex-Communist, conservative "Pravda", quoting this letter calls the elected Iranian President "the hard-line conservative mayor of Tehran who won a landslide victory over his relatively moderate rival Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani". The newspaper brought additional information on the importance of Russian-Iranian relations, noting that bilateral trade between the countries exceeds $2 billion and countries has good prospects for stronger ties in the oil and gas extraction, as well as energy, transport, telecommunications and civil aviation.
As for the nuclear issue, "Pravda" notes that Russia has offered to build more nuclear reactors in Iran after completing the Bushehr plant, in spite of the United States worries that Russia's $800 million contract to build the 1,000-megawatt reactor in Bushehr is a part of Tehran's covert nuclear weapons program. The newspaper adds "while Russia defended its nuclear cooperation with Iran, it has urged Tehran to cooperate with international community to assuage concerns about its nuclear program. Ahmadinejad had sent strong signals that as president, he might push his country toward a much tougher stance in sensitive negotiations with the West over its controversial nuclear program".
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also published an official statement congratulating the winner and noting that during his cadence the relations between the countries will rise to the next level. Russian MFA based this assumption on the results of previous meetings between the ex-Mayor of Tehran and his counterparts in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, during which Ahmadinejad strived to upgrade the relations.
The chairman of the Council of Federation international committee Mikhail Margelov (one of the most informed Russian politicians in the sphere of the state Foreign policy) also commented the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He said, that he could not have predicted the results and noted that it would be the end of all more or less liberal reforms, which started in the last years. "He is too radical to my mind, but he can manage to fit the modern geopolitical realities. Though the chance seems to slight for inertance of the Iranian society and the religious dictate", Margelov said, blaming the US in "assisting" Ahmadinejad by its claims that it will not accept any "democratically elected Iranian leader". "They helped the anti-Western powers in Iran, which embraced Ahmadinejad and listened to Khamenai", Margelov noted.
The independent "Vremya Novostey" newspaper brings another interesting point that besides formal congratulations Russian authorities decided to mark the election of Ahmadinejad with a very pro-Iranian political move. Vladimir Putin personally noted that "several paragraphs" of the American law on sanctions on Tehran are harmful for… Russian-American trading relations! It was a good election gift and a very transparent hint to the ex-Pasdaran soldier who turned to be the leader of the Islamic Republic.
The daily "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" notes that the election of Ahmadinejad will not lower in any way the level of the relations between the two countries. The elected Iranian President is well aware of importance of the relations with Russia, and moreover he wanted to visit Moscow at the nearest future as a Mayor of Tehran. However, being elected as a leader of Iran, he will have to postpone the visit. The newspaper also quotes the provisional plenipotentiary of Russia in Iran Alexey Dedov saying that any way the President of Iran cannot decide on any serious shift of policy without the consent of the Ayatollahs - the spiritual leadership.
The daily "Novye Izvestia" quotes several experts claiming that the newly elected leader of Iran will be much more aggressive concerning the issue of the Caspian Sea and that may be problematic for several CIS states, especially for Azerbaijan.
But the national RIA Novosti agency commentator Pyotr Goncharov made the most interesting reaction or better to say prediction. A day before the elections he wrote an editorial article, claiming that Russia will not lose no matter who wins the second round of the presidential election in Iran.
"It has a fair chance of preserving its priority standing in Iran's foreign policy under any president - Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, technocrat and pragmatist, or his rival, the ultraconservative Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who produced a furor with his surprising success on the elections. This is the unanimous opinion of most Russian experts", he noted.
One of the most prominent specialists in the sphere of Iranian politics Radjab Safarov, director of the Center for Modern Iran Studies, holds the same opinion, and moreover thinks that Russia would get a carte blanche in oil, gas and, of course, nuclear projects. On the other hand, this may increase Western, including U.S., pressure on Russia.
Related items:
Putin's Tehran Envoy Secrets
Russian Weapons to "Free Jerusalem"
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