Russian President Vladimir Putin told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday that he would do everything in his power to help end the Middle East war, even as diplomacy over the conflict that began with US-Israeli attacks on February 28 appears frozen. “We are ready to do everything that is in our power to contribute to the settlement of this situation,” Putin said. The two men met in Turkmenistan ahead of a Commonwealth of Independent States summit.
The offer comes at a bleak moment. Pezeshkian said this week that negotiations with Washington were “meaningless,” leaving no active channel to halt a war whose human toll falls hardest on civilians far from any summit table. The base reporting from the meeting gives no casualty figures and doesn’t describe conditions on the ground. What it does show is how far the diplomatic track has narrowed.
A Mediation Offer Without a Process
Putin said Iran had made “real efforts to end the war” since the US-Israeli attacks began. He also pointed to the “positive evolution” in relations between Moscow and Tehran. Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that Putin told Pezeshkian in a call on Wednesday that he was ready to help mediate in the Middle East war.
A mediation offer isn’t a mediation process. Iran-US talks appeared to be at an impasse, while efforts to resolve Russia’s own offensive in Ukraine also looked deadlocked, with both sides intensifying attacks. A mediator whose own war is stalled—and whose partner faces accusations of arming and informing one side in the Middle East fighting—has limited credibility in the role.
The accusations are specific. Ukraine and Western countries have accused Iran of supplying Russia with Shahed drones and short-range missiles for use in Ukraine. Russia, in turn, faces accusations of supplying targeting data or other data to Iran for attacks on US interests or targets in the Middle East. Both countries rank among the world’s most sanctioned, and they’ve leaned on each other more heavily since Russia launched its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, four years ago.
The CIS Stage
The two leaders arrived in Turkmenistan for the CIS summit, which starts Friday in Avaza, a resort on the Caspian Sea. Leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Turkmenistan and other Central Asian states are also due to attend. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the Putin-Pezeshkian meeting was one of several bilateral encounters planned on the sidelines. Putin and Pezeshkian last met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan in September.
The CIS was established in 1991, 35 years ago, to maintain ties among former Soviet republics. Its membership has frayed. Georgia withdrew after its 2008 war with Russia, 18 years ago. Ukraine halted its participation after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, 12 years ago. Moldova left in 2023, three years ago, as it sought closer ties with the European Union.
Temur Umarov, a researcher at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, told AFP that for a Russia isolated since 2022, the CIS demonstrates that it “actually has the orbit and that it has its own sphere of influence that is fortified and institutionalised.”
Limits to Moscow’s Reach
Not every member is eager to follow Moscow’s lead. Several are seeking to diversify their economic and diplomatic partnerships, including by strengthening ties with China and Western nations. Zhanibek Arynov, a Kazakhstan-based researcher specialising in Central Asian geopolitics, told AFP: “Even if Russia decides to use this platform to propagate anti-Western or anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, that doesn’t mean the other members will automatically subscribe to its position.”
Why This Matters: A pledge to “do everything” to end a war carries weight only if it comes with leverage, a process and a willingness to apply pressure. None of those is visible in the facts here. Iran-US talks are described as an impasse, and the Ukraine track is stuck as well. For civilians living through both wars, each week without a functioning negotiating channel brings another week of risk. A summit sideline meeting between two heavily sanctioned governments, each accused of feeding the other’s war effort, is unlikely to change that on its own. The gap between declared readiness to mediate and an actual diplomatic framework is the story. International law and multilateral institutions haven’t closed it so far.