Putin Hosts Iran’s IRGC Hardliner Days After GOP Midterm Wipeout — and the GRU Chief Tags Along

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, at the Kremlin on Thursday. Rezaei, who is also a representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader, delivered a message from Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. Both the Kremlin and Iranian state media confirmed the meeting.

The meeting seems to have been hastily arranged following a phone call between Putin and Rezaei on Monday.

Putin is meeting with the secretary of #Iran's regime's SNSC Mohsen Rezaei in Moscow today. https://t.co/bx4Ueg41fm

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) November 5, 2026

Ostensibly, the meeting had four topics:

• Bilateral relations under the January 2025 Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
• Post-war regional security arrangements in the Gulf and wider Middle East.
• Construction of a gas pipeline from Russia to Iran to address Iranian gas shortages and allow Russia to sell gas to neighboring countries.
• Iran’s position on the ongoing conflict with the U.S. Rezaei stated that Iran has set seven conditions for the Americans; until all are met, Iran will neither reopen the Strait of Hormuz nor enter negotiations. He said Putin offered support to end the war, condemned the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, and described the war as unjust.

Several interesting aspects stood out in this meeting.

Timing

Rezaei says the meeting had been scheduled a month earlier, but, somewhat contradictorily, he also said that "Khamenei had wanted him to deliver the message to Putin as soon as possible."  You can have one or the other. The fact that Thursday's meeting occurred after Tuesday's blowout at the polls, a fact that Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei took note of, see Some Horrible People Got Elected, and the Cardboard Ayatollah Has Some Thoughts – RedState, can't be coincidental.

Gas Pipeline

The general idea is to address Iran’s domestic gas shortages while allowing Russia to export gas onward through Iran to neighboring markets. Undoubtedly, there is also the calculation that a pipeline carrying Russian gas would give it some degree of immunity from attack in a future war. The route is supposed to run through Azerbaijan.

This deal would, naturally, be controlled by Russia's national gas company, Gazprom, and bringing U.S. investment into Gazprom is a strategy the Witkoff-Kushner negotiating team has floated in talks with Russia.

The War

Rezaei used the opportunity of the meeting to reiterate Iran's longstanding negotiating position that peace is not possible until the U.S. agrees to its preconditions, which must now be viewed in the context of the gutting of Trump's political support on Capitol Hill and Vice President JD Vance blaming the war for the nationwide rout of Republicans from historically safe seats; see Vance's Explanation for the GOP's Midterm Disaster Is a Little Too Neat and Tidy – RedState. Rezaei could rightfully feel, and I would agree with him, that Trump will now take a very bad deal simply to make the pressure point caused by the war go away.

Mystery Guest

For a meeting billed as focusing on regional security and economics, one attendee was GRU (military intelligence) chief Admiral Igor Kostyukov. The GRU is the thug of the current Russian intelligence apparatus. The SVR, the descendant of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, which handled foreign operations, might spy, but when Putin wants people killed and objects broken in foreign countries, he calls on the GRU.

The Messenger

The fact that Rezaei, who has never been elected to any position, represents the Cardboard Ayatollah as a messenger in a couple of ways. First, he came up through the ranks of the  Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was involved in the 1994 bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. In 2011, his son, who had defected to the U.S., was murdered in Dubai. This didn't happen without Rezaei's sign-off. This not only signals that the IRGC is calling the shots, but the presence of the GRU thug also suggests that action against U.S. forces might be afoot. The trip signals to the region that, despite the on-again, off-again war with the U.S., Iran is not isolated and is still a regional power.

Bottom Line

Nothing about this meeting looks good politically or otherwise. Russia meeting with an Iranian official with Rezaei's resume shouldn't give anyone a warm, fuzzy feeling about Putin's offer to mediate a deal between the U.S. and Iran. Iran meeting with its major arms supplier and reiterating the "no compromise" rhetoric that they've used since the first abortive "ceasefire" is also not a good sign. Having this happen in the aftermath of Tuesday's electoral slaughter, while Russian officials were simultaneously being feted at the White House, allegedly discussing yet another ephemeral peace deal with Ukraine (see Trump Holds Off on New Russia Sanctions, Citing Ukraine Peace Talks – RedState), is also a bad look.

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