THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE AND THE ATTITUDE OF THE IRANIANS TOWARDS RUSSIA

ATTITUDE OF THE IRANIANS TOWARDS RUSSIA

Irina Mirochnik

The #russianinvasion of #Ukraine dramatically changed the attitude of the #Iranians towards #Russia.
Since the beginning of the war, their favorable rating has fallen to 40%, while the number of dissatisfied people has grown, according to an IranPoll survey conducted jointly with the US University of Maryland (CISSM) in June-July 2022.

Despite President Putin’s assurances that Russia-Iran #relations are progressing “at a good pace” and trade growth is breaking records, Iranians no longer view Moscow with sympathy. On the contrary, now most of them (57%) have a negative attitude towards Russia.

At the same time, the rating fell below 50% only after the invasion of Ukraine – before the war, the favor of the Iranians was consistently above 55% for almost 6 years.

#History

In #Iran, there is a process of heightened perception of some events in its history.
Strange events are taking place around the Russian embassy in Tehran. When recently Russian Ambassador to Iran Jagaryan, after a meeting with his British counterpart Shercliffe, was photographed on the “historical stairs”, where the Tehran Conference was held from November 28 to December 1, 1943 with the participation of the “Big Three” – the leaders of three countries: Roosevelt (USA ), Churchill (Great Britain) and Stalin (USSR), and posted this photo on Twitter, a scandal erupted. Jagaryan was invited to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, where he had to give explanations in a “friendly manner and benevolent atmosphere.”

On the Day of the Diplomatic Worker, Dzhagaryan honored the memory of Alexander Griboedov, who was killed on January 30, 1829 as a result of an armed attack on the embassy, by laying flowers. After the Russian embassy posted this photo and a post on Twitter, in which it said that the Russian ambassador paid tribute to the memory and respect of his colleague, numerous publications began to appear on Iranian social networks with sharp criticism of the Russian embassy’s action and even calls to “immediately expel the Russian ambassador from the country”.

The Iranian newspaper Hamshahri claimed that the Russian ambassador allegedly “repeatedly insulted the Iranian people” and demanded the intervention of the Foreign Ministry.

In Iran, they still cannot forget and forgive Griboyedov for his participation in the preparation and signing of the Turkmanchay peace treaty in 1828, which ended the second Russian-Iranian war (1826-1828) and secured the transition of all the Transcaucasian khanates to the Russian Empire. This document changed the balance of power and the geopolitics of the entire region, which affected, and still affects, the development of events.

“St. Petersburg in 1828 wrested the most important diamond from the Persian crown.” It is no coincidence that after the collapse of the USSR, a group of Iranian lawyers took the initiative to revise the provisions of the Turkmanchay Treaty, which, in their opinion, “was valid only for 100 years.”

03-09-2022 [Writer Irina Mirochnik is the President at IMMER Group & Doctor of Philosophy in Law(PhD)]

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