Financial Times:

Miles Johnson in London and Max Seddon in Berlin

Iranian scientists and nuclear experts made a second covert visit to Russia last year, in what the US claims has been a push to obtain sensitive technologies with potential nuclear weapons applications.

The previously undisclosed trip was part of a series of exchanges between Russian military research institutes and the Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), an Iranian military-linked unit that the US accuses of leading Iran’s nuclear weapons research.

The meetings, referenced in documents obtained by the Financial Times, represent the first evidence of Moscow’s apparent willingness to engage with Tehran over knowledge potentially relevant to nuclear weapons. The FT corroborated the documents through corporate filings, sanctions designations, leaked travel data and other correspondence.

The full depth of co-operation and transfer of dual-use advanced technology remains unknown. But Jim Lamson, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and a former CIA analyst, said the evidence suggested Tehran’s defence-linked scientists had last year been “seeking laser technology and expertise that could help them validate a nuclear weapon design without conducting a nuclear explosive test”. 

Iran has maintained its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, while Russia has said it is opposed to the Islamic Republic developing nuclear weapons.

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