Abstract :
Various theoretical approaches in the field of international relations offer
different answers to the existing ambiguities and questions about why
Russian-Iranian ties have expanded in the post-USSR era. While realist
approaches try to define the growth in Russian-Iranian cooperation within
the framework of ties between major powers and their continuous efforts to
establish balance of power, liberal approaches relate statesʹ motives and aims
of establishing such levels of relations to economic and material interests.
Here, a subject being somehow ignored by the two approaches is that both
Iran and Russia, as far as identity developments are concerned, have passed
through a situation in which they felt a need to reconstruct their identities
after the demise of the USSR.
This article argues that during the aforementioned period, Iran and Russia,
apart from meeting each other’s security needs or rare material interests -
reliable foreign exchange for Russia and embargoed technologies for Iranthey
were also a source for meeting their identity needs. The post-USSR era,
and especially under Vladimir Putin, Iran has served as the most important
arena providing Russia with the possibility of acting like a major world
power. Russia’s behavior has been one of the major challenges to the
international isolation of Iran in recent years.
