The Kremlin is enraged over President Donald Trump's decision to strike nuclear facilities in Iran over the weekend, Reuters reported on Monday — and at least part of its anger seems to stem from the fact that Trump didn't clear any of his action with Vladimir Putin first.
Per the report, Putin "hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Moscow two days after U.S. President Donald Trump sent U.S. bomber planes to strike Iran's three main nuclear sites," where he told Araqchi, "The absolutely unprovoked aggression against Iran has no basis and no justification. For our part, we are making efforts to assist the Iranian people."
This follows warnings from Moscow ahead of the strikes on Saturday that a U.S. campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities could send the whole region into the "abyss."
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Putin's administration, said of Trump's strikes, "There was no detailed information. The topic of Iran itself was repeatedly discussed by the presidents during their most recent conversations, certain proposals were voiced by Russia, but there was no direct detailed information about this."
A decade previously, Russia worked hand in hand with the United States and several other countries on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which eased sanctions on Iran in return for the country submitting to third-party inspections of its nuclear facilities. Trump, after taking office in his first term, stopped following this agreement.
While the United States and Russia disagree over the Iran issue, Trump's presidency has otherwise been marked by frequent friendliness and deference to Putin, who is himself engaged in a protracted invasion of Ukraine, and whose regime interfered in the 2016 election on Trump's behalf. Trump even went so far as to scold other members of the G7 for having expelled Russia from the group.