Kremlin Believes Iran Has Successfully Suppressed Mass Protests, Russian Expert Says
The Kremlin is confident that mass protests in Iran have peaked and Tehran’s leadership has successfully crushed domestic resistance to its rule, according to one of Russia’s leading experts on Iran.
Russia’s embassy in Tehran reportedly informed Moscow that the protests have subsided and the Kremlin “can breathe a sigh of relief,” Nikita Smagin told international media.
The demonstrations over economic hardships began on December 28 and quickly spread to hundreds of cities and towns across the sanctions-affected nation of more than 90 million people. Iranian law enforcement authorities suppressed the protests, possibly using violent tactics.
Moscow now “thinks that nothing threatens Iran from within,” said Smagin, who left Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned what it called “illegal Western pressure” and criticized unnamed “external forces” that allegedly seek to “destabilize and destroy” the Islamic Republic.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariya Zakharova claimed that “the notorious methods of ‘color revolutions’ are being used, when specifically trained and armed provocateurs turn peaceful protests into cruel and senseless lawlessness, pogroms, the killing of law enforcement officers and average citizens, including children.”
Zakharova referenced a long-standing Kremlin narrative about “color revolutions” that were allegedly organized and funded by the West in former Soviet nations including Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in the early 2000s to overthrow Moscow-friendly authoritarian governments.
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman called threats from United States President Donald Trump to interfere in the Iranian protests “categorically unacceptable.” She added that the “decline in the artificially-instigated protests” may lead to stabilization in Iran.
