Leaked Roadmap Shows How Moscow Is Institutionalizing Ties With Iran

Russia is transforming its partnership with Iran from a series of bilateral projects into a state-managed strategic portfolio. A nonpublic Russian government roadmap, revealed by Fox News Digital on September 20, shows Moscow and Tehran coordinating across ministries, regulators, and state companies while building mechanisms that could make the relationship more resilient to Western pressure.

Roadmap Reveals the Machinery Behind Russia-Iran Cooperation

Russia approved the “Plan for Cooperation Between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran for 2024–2026” on September 2, 2024. Marked “For official use,” the roadmap assigns ministries, regulators, and state companies responsibility for projects spanning finance, energy, nuclear power, aviation, and transportation.

Many projects mentioned in the document were already underway or had been publicly discussed. Rosatom — the Russian atomic energy company — began construction of Units 2 and 3 of Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in 2016, while Russia and Iran agreed to finance and build the Rasht-Astara railway in May 2023.

Other initiatives subsequently advanced across several sectors: state-owned ZN-Vostok was identified as the developer of Iran’s Shadegan oil field, Rosaviatsiya — Russia’s air transport agency — said three Iranian companies had been approved to service Russian-operated aircraft, and Iranian-owned Kourosh Agro Terminal began expanding its Iran-linked operations in Astrakhan, later adding storage infrastructure similar to facilities described in the roadmap. Rather than announcing isolated projects, the roadmap brings cooperation already unfolding across sectors into a common implementation framework.

The roadmap also calls for Russia and Iran to coordinate through BRICS and other multilateral institutions against “unilateral trade restrictions” — such as sanctions — and proposes expert communities, discussion platforms, and an international forum focused on “unilateral restrictive measures.” Moscow not only seeks to institutionalize cooperation with Iran but also to broaden international opposition to sanctions, potentially making Western pressure more difficult to sustain.

Russia-Iran Cooperation Deepens After 2022 Invasion of Ukraine

The roadmap builds on a relationship that changed significantly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Iran became more valuable to Moscow as a military supplier, providing attack drones and helping to move production inside Russia. The U.S. Treasury Department said Iran’s defense ministry cooperated with Moscow under a $1.75 billion contract to build the drones at Russia’s Alabuga manufacturing facility.

The military relationship has also become increasingly reciprocal. U.S. intelligence assessed in 2025 that Russia has been supplying Iran with weapons, intelligence, and cyber capabilities. In March 2026, Russia was reported to be providing Iran with targeting information on U.S. forces and sharing drone tactics learned in Ukraine.

The relationship has broadened well beyond defense. In 2024, bilateral trade rose 16.2 percent year-on-year to $4.8 billion, while the joint economic commission operated through 17 permanent working groups and the two governments signed more than 30 intergovernmental and interagency documents in three years. Russia and Iran also signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty in January 2025, covering areas including finance, energy, and transport, while a full free-trade agreement between Iran and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union entered into force in May 2025.

The countries’ economies are both heavily constrained by Western sanctions, leading them to connect their financial systems. Russia and Iran linked Russia’s System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) and Iran’s SEPAM financial-messaging system in 2023, and later connected Iran’s Shetab payment network to Russia’s Mir system, to avoid the SWIFT system used by much of the world.

Target the Networks Behind Russia-Iran Cooperation

The roadmap gives Washington a cross-sector map of the institutions and companies implementing Russia-Iran cooperation and therefore a basis for more systematic sanctions and export-control targeting. Treasury should identify Iranian banks participating directly in SPFS and consider additional Russia-related sanctions designations where applicable. It should also explicitly list ZN-Vostok or clarify its blocked status, given its ownership chain and role developing Iran’s Shadegan field. U.S. agencies should identify the three Iranian companies approved to service Russian aircraft and consider designating them for operating in Russia’s aerospace or transportation sectors, while Treasury could designate Kourosh Agro Terminal for operating in Russia’s transportation sector.

Keti Korkiya is a research analyst with the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from Keti and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.