How much does Russia help Iran? A report by Nilofar Gholami In the Iranian public's mind, the name of Russia is associated with China as one of the main supporters of the Islamic Republic. The visit of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, to Iran on Monday, October 19 and his meeting with senior officials in Tehran, once again brought attention to the relations between the two countries. In his meeting with Lavrov, Iranian President Massoud Mazkeyan appreciated Moscow's "support and friendship" with Tehran during the war. Abbas Arakhchi, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic, also emphasized the expansion of cooperation between Tehran and Moscow and said that "Iran and Russia have never had such close relations as today in their history." In his meeting with his Russian counterpart, he mentioned the development of economic and nuclear cooperation as one of the topics for discussion. Rubik Minsian, a journalist, told DW Farsi that relations between Moscow and Tehran are very complicated in the current situation and regional experts have different opinions about it. According to him, after the start of the war in Ukraine and the heavy sanctions of the West against Moscow, the relations between Iran and Russia "went out of normality and became much closer".