On Tuesday, Tehran and Beijing openly sided with Moscow repeating its propaganda line on Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin meanwhile landed in Tehran on Tuesday during his first foreign trip outside the borders of the former Soviet Union since unleashing the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Mr. Putin met with both Iran’s “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Islamic Republic’s "President", Ebrahim Raisi.

As Mr. Putin prepared for his departure from Moscow, one of his foreign policy advisors, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that the “contact with Khamenei is very important.”

Said Ushakov: “A trusting dialogue has developed between them on the most important issues on the bilateral and international agenda. On most issues, our positions are close or identical.”

Putin met also with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the situation in Syria, where Moscow has provided decisive military support for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

Gazprom's Contract With Iran

Iran’s state-owned oil company announced on Tuesday that it had signed a “historic” deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom that will enable the development of two offshore gas fields, six oil fields and the construction of gas export pipelines.

Valued at $40 billion, the deal was inked at a ceremony in Tehran as Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the Iranian capital for talks with Iranian and Turkish leaders. A memorandum of understanding between the two companies was signed by Mohsen Khojastehmehr, the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), and Vitaly Markelov, deputy chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee.

Khojastehmehr hailed the deal as “the largest foreign investment commitment on record” in the history of Iran’s energy industry, commenting that the influx of cash would account for 25 percent of all investments in Iran’s energy sector until 2025.

Tehran's, Beijing's Support for Russia Over War in Ukraine
Iran did not hide this time its full support for Putin's war in Ukraine.

During press conference, Iran top leader falsely claimed, that if Russia had not stopped NATO's actions in Ukraine, then after a while the alliance would start a war under the pretext of Crimea.

On the same day, Communist China also falsely accused the United States of "inciting the crisis" in Ukraine.

The USA, as those who started the Ukrainian crisis and the biggest factor fueling it, should think deeply about their wrong actions, extreme pressure and fanning the fire on the Ukrainian issue, and also stop playing out the bloc confrontation and creating a new cold war by taking advantage of the situation." - falsely claimed top China's Foreign Policy Official Mr. Wang Yi.

Putin's price for friendship with Iran
In addition to the discounted trade contracts that Moscow lured Tehran, Putin will have to guarantee a full religious autonomy for the Shiite Muslims, the sources said. Thus, for the first time, Russia is importing an centuries-old Islamic conflict to its territory. Until now, Sunnis, with a local modifications, dominated Russian Islamic scene.