Iran-Russia Trade Link Keeps Moving Despite Recent Strikes; Azerbaijan Helped Reopen Route

Russian and Iranian officials say a key land connection used for commerce between Tehran and Moscow has continued to carry traffic even as U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have targeted sites inside Iran over the past month. Moscow reported only a short halt in shipments and credited Azerbaijani authorities with swiftly restoring passage that allowed truck drivers to return northward.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk told Interfax on March 25 that freight volumes along the western arm of the north–south transport line showed little change after the strikes, and that a disruption lasting roughly two days had been resolved through cooperation with Baku. He added that routine monitoring of movement across the border indicated flows were operating at expected levels.

The brief shutdown followed a March 5 Iranian drone strike on Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave, after which Azerbaijani border officials temporarily stopped commercial crossings on the land route. Officials in Baku reopened checkpoints to cargo traffic within days, citing the need to maintain trade while managing security concerns along the southern frontier.

Both governments say plans for a new rail link between Rasht and Astara are proceeding as scheduled, with financing and project designs in place and construction due to start in April. The proposed line, about 100 miles long, is intended to boost cargo capacity and shorten transit times between Iran’s Caspian port areas and Russia, officials say.

Western analysts and regional security experts say the corridor is not just a conduit for food and manufactured goods but also a channel that can move military equipment. Since mid-2025, researchers tracking Iranian-Russian logistics have reported transfers of air-defense modules, radar equipment and other systems along the route; earlier in the Russia‑Ukraine war, Tehran-supplied unmanned aerial vehicles reportedly traveled the same passages. "The corridor’s quick reopening shows how resilient these supply routes can be, yet it also highlights how a single incident can interrupt flows," said a Eurasian security analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Azerbaijan now finds itself balancing ties with Washington and Tel Aviv against immediate geographic pressures: Iran sits to its south while Russia lies to the north. Baku has publicly avoided taking sides, seeking instead to keep trade and diplomacy functioning even as neighbors confront a widening aerial campaign. Observers say that for Azerbaijan, keeping the crossing open reduces economic pain and lowers the chance of being drawn into the conflict.