Is the Iran war helping Putin?
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 663 Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With the world’s attention on the war in Iran, Vladimir Putin appears to be stepping up Russia’s war in Ukraine. Last week saw the biggest Russian drone attack since the beginning of the war.
Some Ukrainians believe Putin is doing this precisely because the world is looking the other way. Russia also appears to be benefiting from the Iran war in other ways – oil prices have skyrocketed at the same time as Trump has loosened sanctions on Russian oil. On the other hand, it’s been a difficult few months for Russian allies in Tehran, Caracas and Havana.
The author, academic and Russia analyst Mark Galeotti joins us to examine the ways in which the war in Iran could help or hinder Putin.
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Producers: Xandra Ellin and Cat Farnsworth Executive producer: James Shield Mix: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Russia, March 27. Credit: Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin/Pool/EPA/Shutterstock.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello, it's Tristan. And before we get going with today's episode, we wanted to tell you about castfest, which is the BBC's live podcast festival. It's on Saturday, the 25th of April in London at the historic BBC Made Avale Studios will be there and our friends |
| 0:23.7 | from newscast and Ameriast will be there too and if you're lucky you might even get to make |
| 0:28.4 | your own podcast. You can apply for tickets at the link in our episode description and we hope to |
| 0:34.0 | see you there. On with the show. |
| 0:40.2 | Imagine you're walking around a European city, |
| 0:43.4 | maybe one with lots of tourists, Prague say. |
| 0:46.7 | It's a Tuesday morning, and this happens. |
| 0:58.0 | A quite big drone streaks across the sky and it slams into a building in broad daylight. Now this isn't Prague, but it's not very far off. |
| 1:03.0 | It's Leviv in western Ukraine. I've spent time there and it looks a lot like Prague. |
| 1:09.0 | It's beautiful. Cobble streets, Baroque architecture. Before the war, it looks a lot like Prague. It's beautiful. Cobble streets, |
| 1:11.3 | Baroque architecture. Before the war, it was a big tourist destination. Now, these days, |
| 1:16.1 | you might hear Ukraine drone strike and think, what's new? But what's happening in Ukraine right now |
| 1:21.8 | isn't normal. One day last week, there were almost 1,000 drone strikes in one day. |
| 1:28.8 | It's been called the biggest drone attack since the beginning of the war, |
| 1:32.4 | and maybe even the biggest in history. |
| 1:36.6 | I spoke with a journalist friend just back from Ukraine, |
| 1:39.8 | and he told me many Ukrainians believe that Putin is doing this |
| 1:43.6 | because the US and the world |
| 1:45.8 | is looking the other way right now towards Iran, and that the Russian president is benefiting |
| 1:51.8 | from the Iran war in other ways. All of a sudden, sanctions have been loosened and he's |
| 1:57.5 | able to sell oil again at a big markup. |
... |
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