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Economic diplomacy of the Russian federation in the sphere of international trade: The case of Islamic republic of Iran in context of geopolitical changes
This article is a case study of trends in the economic diplomacy of the Russian Federation towards the Islamic republic of Iran. It represents a contribution in the discussion of inter-contentedness of economic and political goals. Due to the conditions in contemporary political economy — sanctions, protectionism and reemergence of state capitalism in geoeconomic projects, it is difficult to draw a clear line between economic and political goals. Economic diplomacy is thus defined by the authors in its broad sense: as a nexus of political and economic tools to achieve the political and economic goals. In the case of Iranian-Russian relations, the western sanctions and perception of military threat, as well as threat to the stability of the governments, also played a role in expansion of economic relations, as well as structure of trade, as the two states seek solutions to develop their economies under external pressures and keep access to key markets. The article defines the main areas of action in Russian economic diplomacy towards Islamic Republic of Iran: trends in the scale of trade, as well as its structure and implications of this data for the Russian-Iranian relations. It then attempts to discern the main trends in a timeframe from 2014 to 2023 and define the main factors influencing the change of structure and scale of trade between two partners, as well as make predictions for the future, based on the actions of Russian Federation and the signing of free-trade agreement between the Eurasian economic union (EEU) and Islamic Republic of Iran.