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View all search resultsRussia could emerge as Global South's partner amid Iran war, scholar says
A visiting Russian academic has suggested that Global South countries establish a new system of governance and trade, free from Western dominance as the US-Israeli war on Iran shows no signs of ceasing, nearly a week into its second month.
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A man with an umbrella stands along the coast on March 26, 2026, against a backdrop of Sara Sky, a Sierra Leone-flagged tanker carrying Russian crude oil anchored at a jetty in Limay, Bataan province, the Philippines. (AFP/Ted Aljibe)
T
he ongoing United States-Israeli war on Iran poses threats to Global South countries that are struggling with rising oil prices, but alternative countries like Russia may emerge as potential partners to help the region cope with challenges, according to a Russian academic.
The war, which is now in its second month and reportedly has a death toll of more than 3,000 people, continues to escalate as the US and Israel bombard Iranian cities and facilities, met by Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on US military bases in the Middle East.
While heavily affecting the region, the war was also an “aggression against the whole Global South”, said Kirill Babaev, director of the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ICCA RAS).
“This is very dangerous because now every country can think that force is allowed, and this will provoke more conflicts around the world,” Babaev told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, on the sidelines of his visit to Jakarta.
He also warned that Washington’s disregard for the sovereignty of other nations could lead to further conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Read also: Govt scrambles for oil from anywhere amid Mideast supply crunch
President Donald Trump has expanded US military operations abroad since December, beginning with strikes against Islamic State militants in Nigeria and Syria on Christmas Day 2025. This was followed by an incursion into Venezuela on Jan. 3, during which an elite force seized then-president Nicolas Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores in Caracas and transported them to a New York detention center.
