By Jana al-Masry | 2024-07-26

By completing the Rasht-Astara railway -- a key segment of the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) -- Russia is trying to circumvent the cordon imposed on it after its assault on Ukraine, analysts said.

The 7,200km INSTC connects Russia with India via road, rail and sea. Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are part of the corridor.

The Rasht-Astara line, slated to run through Iran along the Caspian Sea and link with a line that runs through Azerbaijan, is a final piece of the route that links Russian ports on the Baltic with Iranian ports in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf.

Russia is the main beneficiary of the massive international project, to the detriment of so-called allies such as Egypt, which relies on revenues from the Suez Canal, analysts said.

"The Russian positions are very surprising," al-Sharq Center for Regional and Strategic Studies researcher Sami Gheit told Al-Fassel.

"On the one hand, for example, you see it eager to get closer to some Arab countries, especially Egypt, and on the other, you see it seeking to build a land corridor that competes with the Suez Canal," he said.

Russia's support for the Rasht-Astara line "is the biggest evidence that its higher interest is above any consideration or alliance," he said.

The economic benefit for all countries through which the line passes will be modest, he added, though it will be of strategic benefit to Russia.

Conduit for Russian alliances

"Russia aspires for this railway to be a conduit for alliances with certain countries, particularly China and Iran, with small states that are in the orbit of these countries," Gheit said.

This would facilitate "Russian hegemony through new global corridors that serve its interests at the expense of the security of the Middle East, the Gulf and the world," he added.

The Rasht-Astara line drew massive publicity that suggested it would serve as a corridor for inexpensive land transportation, Egyptian military expert Shaher Yassin told Al-Fassel.

"But it is clear that Russia aspires to connect the Gulf to its regions for strategic, geopolitical and military reasons, especially amid the global cordon imposed on it as a result of its war on Ukraine," he said.

"Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Russia has been pressuring the countries participating in the line to speed up the process," he said.

This confirms "its need for more freedom of movement and perhaps the transfer of weapons, or the use of the line in emergency situations to confront traditional enemies," he said.

The line also will give Iran ease of movement and a new way to obtain weapons and distribute them to its proxies in the Middle East, thus causing more tensions, Yassin said.