Tehran Nervously Watches Events In Russia As Dissidents Celebrate

Iran supports the rule of law in Russia, the foreign ministry announced Saturday in the first official reaction coming from an ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

The ministry’s spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a very brief statement published on the ministry’s website that the recent events in Russia were an internal issue of the country.

The statement was issued several hours after Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin announced he had directed his troops towards Moscow.

There are unconfirmed reports of a phone talk between presidents Ebrahim Raisi and Vladimir Putin Saturday afternoon.

However, many Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic regime were celebrating Putin’s apparent misfortune, saying that his demise will hasten the fall of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Alireza Nader an Iran watcher and activist tweeted: “Dictators fall, regimes are overthrown, freedom is achieved. Don’t believe the naysayers. Keep doing what you think is right.”

Iranian government media -- including the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) linked Tasnim and Fars news agencies and Press TV, the English Channel of the Islamic Republic State TV -- only reflected the Putin government’s narrative all day on Saturday.

They published selected news about Prigozhin’s challenge, such as Putin calling Prigozhin’s move “mutiny” and a “stab in the back”, and saying he would not succeed in his endeavor to take control of Moscow.

Nour News, affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said in a tweet on Saturday that Wagner group's action could lead to "destructive psychological consequences" given Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine war. “But this group essentially lacks the minimum power necessary to challenge the Russian army,” it added.

In another tweet a few hours later, Nour News said Putin’s remarks about “the issue of internal treason as well as his determination to prevent civil war” could indicate that he knows “the West has a new plan to weaken Russia’s national cohesion and bring Moscow to its knees in the Ukraine war.”

A Telegram channel identifying itself as the Revolutionary Guards channel re-published a Twitter post by Reza Abbasi, a hardliner journalist, who suggested Iran would help Russia defeat opposition to Putin. The channel is believed to be affiliated to the IRGC.

‘’We once prevented the downfall of the Syrian government for our own national interests! If necessary, we will also prevent the downfall of Putin’s government,” Abbasi had said in his tweet.

Tasnim later on Saturday afternoon published an interview with Mehdi Seyf-Tabrizi, a Russia expert, who said Prigozhin was helped by “hands from outside Russia” and that in the current circumstances his actions may “deal a fatal blow to Russia from the inside” and distract Moscow from the Ukraine war.

Seyf-Tabrizi said the Russian people will strongly defend the government against the Wagner forces if the course of events continues in the same way in the next few days. “But I don’t think these operations last more than a few days.”

Relatively more independent media outlets have cautiously been providing some real coverage to the events unfolding in Russia.

The conservative news website Nameh News, however, published an interview with Nematollah Izadi, the last Iranian ambassador to the Soviet Union, who said the Russian people are not happy about Putin’s policies and his war on Ukraine which have brought on sanctions.

He also said the Islamic Republic’s involvement in the Russian war on Ukraine was “pointless” and “based on wrong calculations” and has put the country in a difficult place and had disagreeable consequences.