Russia's Complex and complicated relations with Iran--Religion, communism, Islam, Gorbachev, Khomeini, Putin and Khamenei
About 33 years ago, the founder and the first leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran sent a letter to the (would be last) leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to tell him, among other things, that he "must face the truth: the principal problem of your country is not the question of property, economy and liberty, but the lack of true belief in God. The same problem has led or will lead the West to decadence and deadlock." Khomeini died six months after sending the letter, on June 3, 1989, at the age of 86. The Soviet Union, which was officially known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was dissolved on December 26, 1991--at the age of 69, when Vladimir Putin, now the president of Russia, was 39 years old. Gorbachev died today, August 30, 2022, at the age of 91. Putin, now 69, just visited Iran (July 19, 2022) to establish a strategic partnership with Iran, now led by Khomeini’s successor, Ali Khamenei, 83 years old, who was 50 years old and president of Iran when the letter was sent. The Picture of the current two leaders, Putin and Khamenei, may capture the transformation the two nation-states and these two leaders went through.
The letter is being republished here to reflect on where these two countries (and the world) and these two leaders were then and where they are now.
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