Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed concerns about Iranian missiles in a 2012 documentary interview, but recent defense ties between Moscow and Tehran now allow Iran to potentially expand its ballistic missile reach to Europe during a continuing conflict with the United States.
In an interview clip resurfacing across social media, Putin chuckled while responding to a German journalist who referenced Iranian missiles as NATO’s pretext for European missile defense deployment. “You really made me laugh,” Putin said at the time, adding that it was time to go to sleep and that he would go home in good humor.
Iran is now locked in a conflict with the United States, demonstrating lethal strike capabilities in the Middle East and threatening to expand hostilities to American allies in Europe.
“If the US launches another war against Iran, every military base involved in the aggression—from West Asia to Europe—will be a legitimate target for Iran’s lethal strikes,” Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei wrote on X.
“NO SAFE DISTANCE. NO SAFE HAVEN.”
Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Military and Political Power, pointed to Iran’s expanding strategic ambitions. “Iran has several motives for wanting to extend its ballistic missile range to ensure that it covers all of Europe,” Bowman told Newsweek, noting that U.S. bases on the continent have supported the war launched against the Islamic Republic in late February.
“One is to intimidate and threaten, blackmail and coerce Europeans, but also potentially to hit U.S. military bases in Europe,” Bowman said.
The Deepening Moscow-Tehran Axis
The security relationship connecting Russia and Iran has strengthened considerably since their earlier military actions in Syria. The partnership reached a new level when Russia adopted a licensed version of Iran's Shahed suicide drone for its war in Ukraine.
In return, the Kremlin has reportedly aided Iran’s military capabilities through enhancements to its drone technology, space-launch vehicle program, and targeting visibility. “Russia has provided very significant assistance to the Islamic Republic of Iran in terms of putting satellites in space, which has improved Iran’s intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting,” Bowman told Newsweek.
Jim Lamson, senior research associate at Middlebury College’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies and former CIA analyst, outlined the threefold benefits Tehran derives from this defense arrangement.
“Iran has already benefitted from Russian assistance that has helped Iran improve its long-range missile and drone strike capabilities, across three areas: One, intelligence and targeting data, including satellite imagery; Two, technologies, including drones, drone components, access to GLONASS satellite signals, anti-jamming systems, technical help to develop a ramjet engine; Three, tactics, including advice on drone tactics,” Lamson told Newsweek.
| Area of Cooperation | Reported Russian Assistance | Strategic Impact for Iran |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence & Targeting | Satellite deployment and imagery | Improved surveillance and targeting accuracy |
| Advanced Technology | Drone components, GLONASS signals, anti-jamming tech | Enhanced long-range strike capabilities |
| Tactical Support | Operational guidance and drone deployment advice | Maximized effectiveness of kinetic strikes |
Bowman described the current global security landscape as “the most dangerous moment we have seen as a country since 1945,” noting that while historical periods like the Berlin Airlift and Cuban Missile Crisis involved acute danger, today’s era is uniquely defined by unprecedented cooperation among four nations.
Europe Faces the Crosshairs
Tehran-based security analyst Alireza Taghavinia told Newsweek that Russia and Iran share parallel interests in countering American influence and NATO expansion. At the same time, Taghavinia emphasized that Iran maintains independent positions, noting that Tehran still considers the Crimean peninsula to be occupied Ukrainian territory.
However, Taghavinia warned that European nations backing Washington now face direct consequences for their diplomatic and military alignment.
“Now it is Europe’s turn to pay the price for accompanying and provoking the U.S. and Israel against Iran,” Taghavinia told Newsweek. “And if the Europeans want to be immune from Iranian missiles, they better pressure Trump not to start a new war. Otherwise, they will have to pay for its security costs.”
Taghavinia added that Iran recognizes Europe’s economic and military constraints, concluding that “the best time has come to attack European bases.”
Tensions have already manifested physically on European soil. The United States Justice Department announced charges against three individuals linked to an alleged sabotage attempt at RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom, a key base housing U.S. bombers involved in the Iran conflict.
Prosecutors tied the suspects to the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya organization, an entity bearing a logo matching patterns used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Axis of Resistance factions.
Iran has denied any connection to these European plots, dismissing the accusations as propaganda.
Vulnerabilities in Continental Defense
Brian Carter, a fellow with the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, argued that Tehran’s direct action campaigns in Europe amount to military attacks rather than traditional terrorism. Carter told Newsweek that Iran conducts these operations because it believes European states will impose only limited consequences.
“Europe is not yet ready to defend at scale in a world of precise mass if Iran’s threats become kinetic,” Michael Horowitz, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Perry World House, told Newsweek. “As Ukraine and the Middle East show, defending against masses of kinetic strikes by low-cost systems is incredibly difficult.”
