Russian President Vladimir Putin, on his second foreign trip since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, visited Tehran and met with Iranian officials on July 19. Although his trip brought much joy to hardliners in Iran, it seems that Moscow got the best of the visit. 

The Russian president was warmly received during his short stay in Tehran, at a time when many capitals in the world are unwilling to roll out the red carpet because of the Ukraine invasion. Even though there was no special ceremony to welcome his arrival, what the highest-ranking Iranian officials — including President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — said in the meetings with the Russian president gave him much-needed credibility. 

Putin's welcome can be considered a big win for Moscow, particularly since his Tehran visit took place just a few days after Joe Biden's Middle East meetings with Israeli and Arab leaders. 

That’s not all. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei became the first world leader to officially buy Russia's justification for starting the war in Ukraine. He told the Russian leader, "In the case of Ukraine if you had not taken the initiative, the other side would have caused the war with its initiative." Khamenei further labelled NATO as a dangerous entity and added that “if it had not been stopped in Ukraine, it would have started a similar war in Crimea."