Iran without sanctions: Russia intensifies cooperation

Russia welcomes the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran and hopes to intensify bilateral cooperation in various spheres of the economy, international legal experts told Vestnik Kavkaza, commenting on Iran's implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on January 16.

A senior scientist of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS, Stanislav Pritchin, expects an increase in economic relations, while maintaining the current level of political contacts. "We see an expected result of months of negotiations, in which Russia was one of the active participants. A number of Iranian companies can operate abroad, Iranian banks are reconnected to SWIFT: it significantly simplifies the economic relations between our countries," he said .

"The first thing to say is that the energy sector will be one of the priorities. There are discussions at the level of Gazprom on how our two countries can cooperate. Nuclear energy also remains a priority. It is possible to speak about developing cooperation in the sphere of the military-industrial complex, as the restrictions on the supply of arms to Iran were removed," Pritchin noted.

"Negotiations on simplification of the visa regime for Russian tourists in Iran are already under way, tourism can actually become a new area of ​​cooperation. I can say the same thing about agriculture," the expert said.

Stanislav Pritchin concluded that Russia is interested in Iran's liberation from economic sanctions. "Iran is a country that has successfully managed to withstand years of sanctions, so its experience of creating a self-sufficient economy is very important for Russia," the senior scientist of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS said.

2nd Rank State Councillor, an expert of the Russian Security Council Scientific Council, Stanislav Ivanov, in his turn, expressed a skeptical point of view. "Now Russia, as well as the entire international community, will cooperate with Iran without any restrictions, but given the fact that the volume of cooperation isn't large and frozen assets are not stored in our banks, but in the western ones, the main process of cooperation with Iran will go beyond Russia's borders and interests. Some circles expect a further fall in oil prices, that is, additional damage to the state budget of the Russian Federation. I think it is not related to the Russian-Iranian relations, because the world oil market maintains a downward trend in any case," he told.

"We can't deliver a terribly large number of goods. We already have close cooperation in the nuclear power industry. Iran was given the green light for the purchase of Boeing, Airbus and so on, so it is unlikely that they will buy our aircraft. I do not expect a sharp jump in the development of bilateral relations in the trade and economic spheres. But there is potential in science and technology: nuclear energy, space exploration and rocketbuilding. Joint projects are not excluded, it only requires the desire of both sides," he pointed out.