As the Iran-Israel conflict continued in June 2025, claims that Iran's historic ally Russia withdrew support for the Islamic republic spread online.
One X post (archived), which had more than 6.1 million views as of this writing, pointed to the news outlet Bloomberg as the source of the claim. It read: "BREAKING: Russia has withdrawn support for the Islamic Republic — Bloomberg."
(X user @MahyarTousi)
Many users in the comments questioned the validity of the statement, while others appeared to believe the claim and linked to the apparent Bloomberg article in question, implying it provided proof that Russia had withdrawn support for Iran. We reached out to Bloomberg seeking comment on the claim, and we will update this story if we receive a response.
The article (archived) did not explicitly confirm that Russia has withdrawn its support for Iran. The claim that Russia ceased to be allies with Iran was inaccurate; in reality, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned Israeli actions (archived) against Iran in a June 2025 phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He also offered to serve in a mediation role between Iran and Israel, and remains strategically aligned with Iran.
Certain portions of the article — which largely explored the geopolitical relationships between Iran, Israel, the U.S. and Russia, amid its war in Ukraine — may have led readers to conclude that Russia had less interest in an alliance with Iran, but the claim that Russia severed ties with Iran is an unfounded assumption. For example, one section read:
"For Russia, Israel's attack on Iran could be as much of a geopolitical jackpot as the election of Donald Trump," said Ruslan Pukhov, a Moscow-based defense expert. "The sheer aggressiveness of Israel's strikes will weaken the West's moral case against Russia, while a war with Iran will likely raise oil prices — dashing hopes of cutting Moscow's vital war revenues."A new Middle East war would divert global attention from Russia's actions in Ukraine and likely trigger a shift in US military support from Kyiv to aiding Israel, according to Pukhov.
In April 2025, Russia ratified a 20-year strategic partnership treaty with Iran that solidified the two nations' alliance but stopped short of a full military alliance.
"The signing of the treaty does not mean the establishment of a military alliance with Iran or mutual military assistance," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in an address to the State Duma at the time, according to The Moscow Times (archived).
In sum, there is no Bloomberg article that explicitly claimed Russia had ceased its alliance with Iran. In reality, Russia's role in the Middle East's geopolitics is more nuanced, with Putin offering to serve in a mediation role while maintaining a strategic alliance with Iran.