In his first official comments since US-Israeli strikes on Iran and ensuing retaliatory strikes, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the targeted killing of Iran’s supreme leader a “cynical murder,” Russian state media agency TASS reported.
The Russian leader described Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death as a murder that violated “all norms of human morality and international law,” according to TASS.
Putin said Khamenei would be remembered in Russia as an “outstanding statesman.”
Moscow and Tehran have long been key allies, with Iran providing Russia with military support including drones and ballistic missiles, and helping Moscow build a drone-manufacturing facility, amid its war on Ukraine.
It comes after Russia’s foreign ministery yesterday condemned the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, calling them a “reckless step” and an “unprovoked act of armed aggression.”