The Caspian Sea has taken on new significance as a trade route connecting Russia and Iran. For the two allies, who face more Western sanctions than any other country, the waterway provides a passage for both overt and covert trade. This allows Iran to remain an adversary of the United States, despite America's significant military superiority, The New York Times reports.
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According to US officials, Russia is supplying Iran with drone components, helping Iran rebuild its offensive capabilities after losing about 60 percent of its UAV arsenal. Russia also ships goods through the Caspian Sea that would normally pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which is currently blocked by the US Navy.
Iranian officials said four Iranian ports along the Caspian Sea are operating around the clock to import wheat, corn, animal feed, sunflower oil and other goods.
Russian trade officials and port statistics also show a rapid increase in Caspian shipping in recent months. Two million tons of Russian wheat, which used to be shipped to Iran annually via the Black Sea but is now under threat from Ukrainian attacks, is now moving through the Caspian, said Vitaly Chernov, chief analyst at PortNews Media Group, which tracks Russia’s maritime industry.
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“Against the backdrop of instability in the Middle East, Caspian routes to Iran look much more attractive,” he said.
Much of the trade that passes through the Caspian Sea is opaque. It is difficult to monitor, not least because ships plying the route between Russian and Iranian ports usually turn off their transponders that allow satellite tracking. Unlike in the Persian Gulf, the United States cannot intercept ships in the Caspian Sea, as only five neighboring countries have access to it.
“If you think of the perfect place for evading sanctions and military transport, it’s the Caspian Sea,” said Nicole Graevskaya, a professor specializing in Iran and Russia at Sciences Po in Paris.
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While both Russia and Iran publicly declare trade in goods such as wheat, weapons are a completely different matter.
The drone supply demonstrates the close defense partnership between Moscow and Tehran. According to American officials, in previous years, trade went both ways, with Iran supplying drones to Russia for use in Ukraine. However, the need for this decreased after July 2023, when the Russian Federation began producing its own model of the Shahed drone under license from Iran at a factory in Tatarstan.
The potential importance of the Caspian Sea became more clearly understood by the West after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia again used ships in the Caspian to fire missiles at targets in Ukraine. Iran used the Caspian Sea in the early stages of the war in Ukraine to resupply Russia with ammunition and Shahed drones.
“Russia and Iran have found ways to circumvent the sanctions regime,” said Anna Borshchevskaya, an expert on Russian policy in the Middle East at the Washington Institute. “And that’s why the Israelis bombed the port. Because they understood that through this small, very important trade route, Russia could provide Iran with a lot of help.”
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We should add that Ukrainian SSR units also sank two Russian ships in the Caspian Sea that were transporting weapons and military equipment.