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Exclusive Russian Document Reveals Iran Cooperation Plans
Confirmed
In Short: An exclusive Russian government document reviewed by Fox News Digital reveals Moscow's plans to deepen its relationship with Iran beyond conventional trade.
The 44-page document, titled 'Plan for Cooperation Between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran for 2024-2026,' outlines initiatives in financial mechanisms, nuclear programs, aviation cooperation, and energy projects.
Keti Korkiya, a research analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Russia program, reviewed the document and noted its significance lies in the architecture of the relationship rather than any single project.
According to Korkiya, the roadmap illustrates the comprehensive cooperation between Russia and Iran, focusing on areas like nuclear programs, energy trade, and financial transactions that aim to evade U.S. sanctions.
The document calls for the Bank of Russia and the Central Bank of Iran to develop the use of central bank digital currencies for cross-border settlements.
In February 2025, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said Russia and Iran had 'practically completely' shifted bilateral settlements into national currencies using their own systems for transmitting financial and banking messages.
Iran’s ambassador to Russia also stated that Tehran and Moscow no longer needed SWIFT for bilateral banking relations and were using their own confidential bank-messaging systems.
The document, marked 'For official use,' was approved on the Russian side on September 14, 2024, and predates the current war involving Iran and the United States.
A European intelligence source who reviewed the material told Fox News Digital that the document is strategic, sensitive, and highly politicized, focusing on areas that aim to evade sanctions.
The Russian document does not use the phrase 'sanctions evasion,' but instead calls for increased use of national currencies and independent financial channels to counter what Moscow describes as 'unilateral restrictive measures.
What's confirmed
- Russian attacks across multiple Ukrainian regions killed one person and wounded at least 10 others overnight into Sunday, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
- The Trump administration's push to end the fighting has lost momentum, with the focus on the Iran war for the past six months.
- The trip by the Americans, part of a renewed effort to end the war, followed a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, as both sides have escalated their aerial attacks in the more than 4½-year all-out war.
- Despite the latest diplomatic push, the core demands of Moscow and Kyiv remain mutually exclusive, especially over territorial concessions, underscoring the difficulty of reaching an agreement.
What's still developing
- But an independent review of the Russian-language document, along with subsequent public reporting, shows that a number of initiatives described in the roadmap later advanced or materialized.
- "The roadmap is not revelatory: people paying close attention to the relationship between Russia and Iran will see many collaborations between the two countries that have been public for years," Korkiya said in written analysis provided to Fox News Digital.
- "What is more revealing is the architecture of the relationship Moscow is trying to build," she said, pointing to financial mechanisms, transportation routes, energy investment and aviation cooperation as different ways of reducing vulnerabilities created by sanctions and Western economic pressure.
- The official said Washington closely tracks attempts by sanctioned jurisdictions to develop alternative cross-border payment mechanisms and would seek to disrupt those that facilitate sanctions evasion or illicit finance.
- Interfax, a Russian news agency, reported that the effort was part of a broader push toward independent payment infrastructure between the two countries.
- He said the initial phase of linking Iran’s Shetab payment network with Russia’s Mir system had begun the previous year.
- EXCLUSIVE: A nonpublic Russian government document obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital reveals how Moscow sought to deepen its relationship with Iran far beyond conventional trade — laying out plans for alternative financial channels, nuclear cooperation, Iranian production of Russian aircraft components, major energy projects and new transportation routes stretching toward the Persian Gulf.
- "I thank my colleagues who honestly perform their work. Those who represent the prosecution in court, work with victims, document Russian crimes, and defend the interests of the state," Kravchenko said.
- Azerbaijan sends another relocation convoy to city of Khojavend and Girmizi Bazar settlement, Guzeykhirman and Guneykhirman villages of district US has blocked changes to visa rules for journalists and students Saudi Arabia asks Britain for aid against Houthis, Burnham still considering Pentagon allows current, former personnel to disclose UFO information Houthis report seven strikes on Yemen’s Saada Province by Saudi warplanes Drone attacks fishing vessels near Iran’s Hormozgan province Hikmet Hajiyev met with Farhad Pirincci and the delegation.
- Ukrainian missiles also reportedly struck a warehouse belonging to major Russian online retailer Ozon, Rostov Oblast Governor Yuri Slyusar said.
- Ukrainian forces struck the Syzran Oil Refinery in Russia's Samara Oblast and a drone production facility in the Russian city of Taganrog overnight on Sept.
- The refinery has an annual crude oil processing capacity of around 8.9 million metric tons and produces gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and other petroleum products.