Iran and Russia don't have a great track record when it comes to long term agreements. Iran doesn't have the kind of investment clout and capital needed to fund these massive infrastructure projects. Nowhere near as much as Russia still has, politically,. The Islamic Republic is under a huge amount of pressure right now at home. And the more it seems to come under that kind of pressure, the safer it seems to feel floating closer or just drifting much closer towards Moscow.
Tough economic sanctions the US and European Union imposed on Russia and Iran have succeeded in cutting off those nations from much of the world economy. But they’ve also had an unintended effect: Moscow and Tehran are now joining forces to evade some of the crippling trade restrictions.
They’re investing billions of dollars on an 1,800-mile trade route that enables them to move products of all kinds over land and water that’s beyond the reach of the West–to buyers in the fast-growing economies of Asia.
Bloomberg journalists Golnar Motevalli in London and Jonathan Tirone in Vienna join this episode to describe how this new trade route operates. And Dr. Maria Shagina, an expert in sanctions, explains how sanctions work–and whether Iran and Russia can ultimately succeed in outmaneuvering the West.
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