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Podcast Episode
Carnegie Politika

How Is the Iran War Affecting Russia? With Nicole Grajewski and Sergey Vakulenko

Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by his colleagues Nicole Grajewski, a non-resident fellow at Carnegie Endowment and the author of Russia and Iran: Partners in Defiance from Syria to Ukraine, and Sergey Vakulenko, a senior fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin and a leading expert on the Russian energy sector, to discuss the U.S.–Israeli war against Iran and how it affects Russian political influence in the region and its position on the global energy market.

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By Alexander Gabuev, Nicole Grajewski, Sergey Vakulenko
Published on Mar 12, 2026

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Carnegie Politika is a digital publication that features unmatched analysis and insight on Russia, Ukraine and the wider region. For nearly a decade, Carnegie Politika has published contributions from members of Carnegie’s global network of scholars and well-known outside contributors and has helped drive important strategic conversations and policy debates.

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At the center of the new war in the Middle East is one of Russia’s most important partners in its struggle against the West: Iran. Despite strategic agreements with Tehran, Moscow is not bound by a treaty alliance with Iran—and is also consumed by its own costly war against Ukraine. Accordingly, the Kremlin has provided the Iranian regime with limited assistance, but hopes to reap greater benefits from the second-order effects of the chaos in the Middle East unleashed by Trump.

How does the war affect Russia both in the Middle East and globally? How do volatile oil prices benefit the Russian war machine, and how long will the effect of this new war last for Russia?


Hosted by

Alexander Gabuev
Director, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center
Alexander Gabuev

Featuring

Nicole Grajewski
Nonresident Scholar, Nuclear Policy Program
Nicole Grajewski
Sergey Vakulenko
Senior Fellow, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center
Sergey Vakulenko

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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