--- title: Putin The Puppeteer: How Russia Benefits From Trump’s War in Iran description: The War in Iran "provided the exact lifeline that Putin needed to rescue him from economic catastrophe." canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/putin-the-puppeteer-how-russia-benefits-from-trump-s-war-in-iran/ author: Jeffrey Sonnenfeld article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-07-30T14:22:37.012Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-30T14:22:37.280Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Putin The Puppeteer: How Russia Benefits From Trump’s War in Iran og:description: The War in Iran "provided the exact lifeline that Putin needed to rescue him from economic catastrophe." og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/putin-the-puppeteer-how-russia-benefits-from-trump-s-war-in-iran/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81e23088012fdd9f/6a6b5cc50cddc6c1a78b834a/Russia-President-Vladimir-Putin.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Russia-President-Vladimir-Putin.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Putin The Puppeteer: How Russia Benefits From Trump’s War in Iran twitter:description: The War in Iran "provided the exact lifeline that Putin needed to rescue him from economic catastrophe." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81e23088012fdd9f/6a6b5cc50cddc6c1a78b834a/Russia-President-Vladimir-Putin.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  IDEASTime ideas # Putin The Puppeteer: How Russia Benefits From Trump’s War in Iran by [Jeffrey Sonnenfeld](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-sonnenfeld/), [John Herbst](https://time.com/author/john-herbst/), [Thomas Kolditz](https://time.com/author/tom-kolditz/), [Cedric Leighton](https://time.com/author/colonel-cedric-leighton/) and [Steven Tian](https://time.com/author/steven-tian/) Jul 30, 2026 2:22 PM UTC  Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on July 29, 2026. Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on July 29, 2026.Alexander Kazakov—AFP/Getty Images by [Jeffrey Sonnenfeld](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-sonnenfeld/), [John Herbst](https://time.com/author/john-herbst/), [Thomas Kolditz](https://time.com/author/tom-kolditz/), [Cedric Leighton](https://time.com/author/colonel-cedric-leighton/) and [Steven Tian](https://time.com/author/steven-tian/) Jul 30, 2026 2:22 PM UTC Regrettably, the effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s [war in Iran](https://time.com/7382631/iran-israel-us-war-explainer-trump-middle-east/), with [oil prices](https://time.com/7383060/gas-prices-iran-war-oil/) rising and Trump’s lifting of Russian oil sanctions, have been [massively helpful ](https://time.com/7383068/iran-war-russia-oil/)to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In fact, the war provided the exact lifeline that Putin needed to rescue him from [economic catastrophe](https://time.com/article/2026/07/15/west-ukraine-russia-putin-sanctions-economy-/). Now, Putin is providing assistance to Iran in the form of [munitions](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/from-drones-to-rocket-fuel-china-and-russia-are-helping-iran-through-supply-chains/), [money](https://www.economist.com/europe/2026/05/07/secret-document-reveals-russias-plans-to-aid-iran), and [intelligence](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-strikes-cia-facilities-prompt-questions-about-possible-russian-role-2026-07-22/), effectively prolonging the war. Reciprocally, Iran is helping Putin prolong his invasion of Ukraine. Puppeteers like Putin manipulate their characters’ movements by pulling several strings at once, not just one. Accordingly, Putin appears to have his hands on quite a few strings, with U.S. intelligence reports [confirming](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/us/politics/russia-iran-partnership.html) this linkage of Russia to the Mideast. For months, multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have documented Russian intelligence assistance to Iran against America. Just last week, when [asked](https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/29/politics/trump-russia-iran-us-troops) about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s warnings that Russia is apparently passing satellite images of American bases **to** Iran to strengthen their missile attacks, Trump [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usfe3AGg2I4), “We’ll find out if that’s true. I’ll ask Putin about it.” [Experts](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/06/russia-iran-intelligence-us-targets/) agree it’s true; but the question is whether Trump is ready to confront Putin about it. Perhaps that’s why he decided to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot interceptors, and endorsed the Russian sanctions bill. Putin’s assistance to Iran comes as he is reaping windfalls from higher oil prices. Until these higher prices bailed him out, Putin had been overseeing a seeming Russian economic collapse, as we [documented extensively](https://time.com/7261449/putin-donald-trump-russia-ceo-essay/) before with the Russian economy [imploding in plain sight](https://time.com/7209350/trump-putin-sanctions-russia-us-economy/). Foreign direct investment in Russia has fallen from [$100 billion a year](https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/ceos-dont-want-to-return-to-russia-because-they-know-its-bad-business) to close to zero, amidst the exodus of over [1,000](https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain) global businesses. Now, Putin is running enormous deficits, with few countries stepping up to fund that debt. Meanwhile, Russia’s [domestic productivity](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/03/30/russias-civilian-industry-downturn-accelerated-in-early-2026-think-tank-says-a92380) is weak; between [700,000 and 1.5 million](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/04/05/russias-emigre-tech-workers-eye-jobs-at-western-firms-as-moscow-clamps-down-on-working-abroad-a84749) skilled tech workers have fled the country; and oligarchs have spirited out billions in assets amidst drastic capital outflows. As a result, Putin was quickly [running out of cash](https://yale.app.box.com/s/tarci24pfo7j5goyxhal8d55ss928fbe), and the value of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and rainy day reserves was [plummeting](https://yale.app.box.com/s/tarci24pfo7j5goyxhal8d55ss928fbe). Then, higher oil prices provided a fresh windfall for Putin to stave off collapse. Indeed, with Trump’s [lifting](https://time.com/article/2026/03/13/trump-europe-russia-oil-sanctions-iran-war/) of certain sanctions on Russian oil, some analysts now [estimate](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-oil-gas-revenue-seen-up-60-yy-july-2026-07-23/) that Russia is on pace to [double](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/world/europe/russian-oil-revenues-doubled.html) its annual oil revenues. While windfall profits are helping Russia stave off economic collapse, Putin keeps throwing the living room furniture into the furnace to fund the war effort, cannibalizing all productive sectors and relying on unsustainable, record deficit spending, all directed towards the war. This has fueled rampant consumer inflation across sectors amidst rising [consumer unease ](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/07/24/russian-central-bank-warns-of-higher-inflation-as-it-lowers-key-rate-to-14-a93329)and usurious [14% interest rates](https://www.reuters.com/business/russian-central-bank-cuts-key-rate-by-25-bps-14-ukrainian-drones-hit-economy-2026-07-24/). It is paradoxical, but not entirely surprising, that Putin is failing in his own bloody gambit for territorial expansion with [hundreds of thousands](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g44gprnnvo) of his own people killed and his own economy in tatters; yet he continues to hold sway over other leaders. No matter what Putin lacks, he extends this malevolent influence through manipulation befitting his background as a KGB operative, the puppeteer manipulating many strings at once, sparking diversionary fires and then pouring gas on the flames continually to distract from his own many problems. It’s clear Russia is the single most important ally to Iran in their shared conspiracy against global peace and prosperity. According to many intelligence reports, in addition to [passing](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/07/27/8046150/) on sensitive intelligence to Iran about U.S. military installations in the region, Russia is systematically upgrading Iran’s aging, pre-1979 military [infrastructure](https://mei.edu/policymemo/russias-wartime-support-for-iran/) as its single largest external source of weaponry. As of mid-2026, [Moscow has completed](https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-finalises-deal-buy-russian-fighter-jets-tasnim-2023-11-28/) production of advanced Su-35 fighter jets and helicopters for Tehran, augmented by deliveries of Yak-130 combat trainers, Mi-28 attack helicopters, and hundreds of long-range air-to-air and anti-radar missiles. Furthermore, in 2022, Moscow helped launch Iran's high-resolution [Khayyam satellite,](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/russian-rocket-successfully-launches-an-iranian-satellite) and Russian forces routinely [transfer](https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/10/politics/russia-iran-ukraine-weapons/index.html) captured Western weaponry from the Ukrainian frontline—including Javelin and Stinger systems—directly to Iranian defense firms to be reverse-engineered and cloned for Tehran's proxy networks. Simultaneously, Russian telecommunications firms are [supplying](https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-supplies-iran-with-cyber-weapons-as-military-cooperation-grows-1c0c6600) Iranian operators with advanced digital surveillance and cyber warfare technologies. But all this is hardly a one-way street for Putin, as Russia has also [benefitted](https://apnews.com/article/russia-iran-drones-shahed-war-israel-ukraine-840b4f885d99714bdb7813c0d56213cf) from Iranian Shahed drone technology. These mass-produced, cheap drones are capable of wreaking disproportionate havoc on much costlier Western defense systems, and now Putin has been directly manufacturing these Shahed drones [inside](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/08/17/russia-iran-drone-shahed-alabuga/) Russia using transferred Iranian manufacturing technology and blueprints. Similarly, Iran has also benefitted from easing sanctions and higher oil prices nearly as much as Putin, with oil windfalls providing up to [$60 billion](https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/deal-gives-iran-chance-to-turbocharge-its-oil-revenue-5b481eb6) in annual sales—and that’s in addition to up to the [$300 billion](https://time.com/article/2026/06/22/jd-vance-donald-trump-iran-peace-talks-congress-nuclear-strait-of-hormuz/) the White House agreed to in the most recent [agreement](https://time.com/article/2026/06/17/us-iran-peace-deal-agreement-leaked-draft-text/) with Iran. As Russia and Iran deepen their unholy alliance, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Mideast cannot be viewed as separate and isolated problems. Rather, they are part of the same global conflict, which is increasingly fueled by the same supply chain—a supply chain that is similarly tied back to the diabolical evil of Putin as a cynical mastermind and puppeteer. Treating peace negotiations in the Mideast as separate from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will only lead to more trouble to come. We may be seeing a growing recognition of this as Trump advocated adding Iran to the Russian sanctions bill, and Ukraine hit an Iranian ship carrying military supplies to Russia in the Caspian Sea. But much more needs to be done to suffocate the supply chains that sustain Putin’s power, by re-enforcing existing sanctions and passing the new comprehensive sanctions bill proposed by the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham alongside Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. It was encouraging to see this new set of sanctions ratified [overwhelmingly](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/us/politics/senators-russia-sanctions-bill-graham.html) with an 88 to 12 vote by the U.S. Senate yesterday with Zelensky smiling from above in the Senate Galley seats while colleagues celebrated the memory of their late colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham. Now the House must act. The E.U. can likewise [do much more](https://time.com/article/2026/07/15/west-ukraine-russia-putin-sanctions-economy-/) irrespective of Trump, as we wrote previously, as the E.U. has been shamefully stepping up its purchases of Russian natural gas and oil. All the evidence points in a single direction and toward a single unassailable truth: as President George W. Bush [memorably](https://time.com/archive/6665744/the-axis-of-evil-is-it-for-real/) warned in 2002, there is an [“axis of evil”](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html), and Vladimir Putin remains one of, if not its, most centrifugal hub, from which much anti-American mischief and malevolence spew. Winston Churchill’s 1940 “[Finest Hour](https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/their-finest-hour.html)” speech before the House of Commons rallied his nation’s resolve through his clear-eyed warning of Adolf Hitler’s ability to leverage the control of industry of the occupied lands he exploited. Rather than consult Putin for his advice, it is time for Trump and his E.U. partners to reinstate sanctions and rally military defenses against the Russian puppetmaster Putin. [TIME Ideas](https://www.time.com/ideas) hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. 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