The increasing ties between Russia and Iran | DW News

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has met with his Iranian counterpart President Masoud Pezeshkian for the first time. The two leaders held face-to-face talks at a regional summit in Turkmenistan, where they joined a number of heads of state from other Central Asian and Arab states.

The Kremlin says the Russian and Iranian presidents discussed mutual relations as well as the situation in the Middle East. The meeting comes amid soaring tensions in the region, with Israel engaged in a war with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. It's the first time Putin has met the Iranian president after Pezeshkian's predecessor Ibrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May.

Ties between Russia and Iran have strengthened since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, with Tehran widely believed to be supplying Moscow with weapons. DW's Natalia Smolentceva reports on the Russian-Iranian relationship.

For more on the story, we talk to DW Correspondent Natalia Smolentceva. She joins us from Riga, where DW moved its Moscow bureau when we were banned from reporting from inside Russia.