Russia has overtaken China and is now the largest foreign investor in Iran, Bloomberg wrote yesterday, citing the Iranian newspaper Donya-e Eqtesad.

According to the publication, as of August 2021, Russia has invested about $2.7 billion in two oil projects in the Iranian province of Ilam. Other major investors in Iran, according to the newspaper, are the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Turkey and China.

China cut its investments in the Islamic Republic last year, limiting them to logistics and border units directly linked to Chinese exports to Iran, Bloomberg writes.

Russia and Iran are absolute champions in terms of the number of sanctions imposed on them by Western countries. This is what unites them. Moscow, due to its international isolation and expressing gratitude for the drones sent to it by Iran, has been expanding military and economic cooperation with Tehran in recent years.

However, it is worth noting that Iran did not recognize either the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation, or the annexation of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye.

Otherwise, according to what has been announced over the past 24 hours, Iran and Russia have begun interconnecting their interbank communications and money transfer systems to help further develop trade and financial transactions between them.

Source: APE-MPE, Bloomberg, Novaya Gazeta Europe, Reuters.