“It was noted that Russia and Iran unanimously and consistently support de-escalating the tensions — both surrounding Iran and in the region as a whole — as soon as possible and resolving any emerging issues through exclusively political and diplomatic means,” a readout from the Kremlin reported.

“This is assistance not only to Iran, but to the entire region, as well as to the cause of regional stability and peace,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press on Friday.

Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian permanent representative to the United Nations Security Council, accused the United States on Thursday of intentionally “escalating tensions and stirring up hysteria around Iran.” He also rebuked the Iranian protesters themselves as “yet another example of the use of tried and tested methods of ‘color revolutions.’”

Jon Alterman, the Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Washington Examiner that this is not a simple act of magnanimity. Russia is attempting to reassert its relevance after failing to support a series of allies who fell to internal or external upheavals.

“Russia has been profoundly irrelevant as its clients have been under stress,” Alterman told the Washington Examiner, citing the Kremlin’s 2016 defense of Bashar al Assad’s regime in Syria as their high-water mark. “For the last ten years, they’ve been ineffective as their clients have fallen.”

Even that 2016 victory didn’t last long — Assad was unceremoniously forced out of the country by insurgents in 2024, settling in Moscow for a quiet life in exile.

Venezuela has been the latest embarrassment for Russia and its loose alliance — unofficially led in tandem with the People’s Republic of China. The U.S. military swept its ally, former dictator Nicolas Maduro, out of the country and into a New York federal court earlier this month.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez holds a similar ideological bend to her former boss but has suffered a metaphorical gun held against her head by President Donald Trump’s administration threatening her with a similar fate. She has been forced to walk a tightrope between asserting cooperation with U.S. demands to oust unfavorable ties to anti-Western powers and appeasing her anti-U.S. supporters domestically and abroad.

On Thursday, she lambasted the White House on Thursday for strong-arming Venezuela against continuing their partnerships with members of the anti-Western coalition.

“We have the right to have diplomatic relations with China, with Russia, with Iran, with Cuba, with all the peoples of the world. Also with the United States. We are a sovereign nation,” the interim president said.

The mention of Cuba — another strategic ally of Russia and China, which suffers widespread poverty and dysfunctional governance — comes as the Trump administration threatens to decapitate its government next.

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Trump wrote over the weekend on Truth Social. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

“We are closely monitoring the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean region,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. “Of course, we are concerned about the growing tension and the escalation of aggressive rhetoric, including against our friendly Republic of Cuba.

“We are convinced that the language of blackmail and threats is simply unacceptable, especially in relation to the island of freedom, its people and government, which have been experiencing for decades the full horror of illegitimate and illegal sanctions,” she continued.

To Alterman, the importance of impoverished countries such as Cuba and Venezuela to the anti-U.S. coalition signals the bloc has been “remarkably ineffective” at marshaling allies on the global stage.

“In broad terms, Russia’s neighbors — countries like Poland, all the countries of Western Europe — want close relations with the United States. China’s neighbors — South Korea, Japan — want close relations with the United States. America’s neighbors — Canada [and] Mexico — want close relations,” Alterman said. “All the countries close to the United States want to be aligned with the United States, and all the countries close to Russia and China also want to be aligned with the United States. 
They’re playing a weak hand.”

GULF STATES, TURKEY WARN TRUMP STRIKING IRAN COULD DESTABILIZE ENTIRE REGION

He continued: “So yes, you can put some hooks into Venezuela. That’s helpful. You know, if you want to invest in Cuba, OK. But to me, the prize is having strong countries on your border that want to have good relations with you — and the fact is that China and Russia don’t have that, and the United States does.”

In the event of U.S. military action against the Iranian regime, the preeminent consideration is the viability of a transitional government that could reorient the country into the Western sphere of influence.

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s ousted Shah, has pushed himself to the front of the pack as a self-designated candidate. But Trump has signaled unease with the idea, though he did not rule Pahlavi out entirely.

“He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump told Reuters in an interview this week. “And we really aren’t up to that point yet.”