Iranian nuclear experts held second covert meeting with Russian weapons institute
US claims meeting is part of an effort by Tehran to acquire sensitive military technologies from Moscow
www.ft.com
Iranian nuclear experts held second covert meeting with Russian weapons institute
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US claims meeting is part of an effort by Tehran to acquire sensitive military technologies from Moscow
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.
Before Israel and the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, the US had said it did not believe Tehran had reactivated a weapons programme, but that it had taken steps to shorten the timeline to build a bomb if its leadership chose to do so.
Documents, correspondence and travel records seen by the FT show that DamavandTec, an SPND front company, last November arranged for a group of Iranian laser specialists to travel from Tehran to St Petersburg.
The scientists met Laser Systems, a Russian company under US sanctions that works on technology for both civilian and classified military uses. Laser Systems did not respond to a request for comment.
An FT investigation in August revealed that DamavandTec and its chief executive, Ali Kalvand, had arranged for several Iranian nuclear scientists and procurement agents to meet Russian scientists and companies with military and intelligence links. They travelled on specially created and consecutively numbered diplomatic passports issued by Iran’s foreign ministry.
The US state department in October placed DamavandTec and Kalvand under sanctions for acting for the SPND in attempting “to procure items applicable to the development of nuclear explosive devices from foreign suppliers”. It added they had “facilitated travel for Iranian nuclear experts to Russia”.
Correspondence seen by the FT shows that Kalvand and DamavandTec last year arranged a second trip by Iranian scientists to Russia. Western officials believe the trips were connected.
Laser Systems’ general director Dmitry Vasilyev in April last year invited Ali Kalvand and four purported DamavandTec employees to visit the company’s facility in Strelna, south-west St Petersburg. The Iranians travelled in November.
Academic and institutional records reviewed by the FT show the men were not DamavandTec staff but physicists and engineers from Iranian universities and research centres linked to the country’s defence establishment.
They include researchers from Shahid Beheshti University, Islamic Azad University of Kashan and Malek Ashtar University of Technology — an institution controlled by Iran’s defence ministry and long under US and EU sanctions for its role in nuclear-related work.
The invitation described the visit as an opportunity for “technological collaboration”. Flight data reviewed by the FT indicates that Kalvand and the group travelled to Russia between November 7 and November 11 2024.
Andrey Savin, a Laser Systems researcher, visited Tehran in February 2025, where he met representatives of DamavandTec and, according to a person briefed on the trip, officials believed to be affiliated with the SPND. Savin is also professor at Baltic State Technical University, one of Russia’s most important military-technical universities. Savin did not respond to a request for comment.
Laser Systems has, according to its website, permission from Russia’s FSB security service to handle work involving state secrets, as well as permits for developing weapons under direct on-site supervision from the defence ministry.
DamavandTec, meanwhile, acts as a procurement broker within Iran’s military-linked research complex, seeking foreign suppliers for components restricted under global export-control regimes, according to the US state department.
The FT previously reported that DamavandTec attempted to acquire small quantities of several radioactive isotopes including tritium, exports of which are heavily controlled because it can be used to boost the yield of nuclear warheads.
Iran has consistently denied ever pursuing nuclear weapons and maintains that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful. Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, did not respond to a request for comment.
Nicole Grajewski, a fellow in the nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the meetings were “strong evidence that Russia was assisting Iran in its nuclear weapons-related research, with state-affiliated Russian institutions providing dual-use technology and knowledge transfer”.
“This activity looks like it is state sanctioned at a high level on the Russian and Iranian sides,” she added.
The revelations come amid tensions over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions following joint US-Israeli air strikes earlier this year on Iranian nuclear sites. While Donald Trump declared Iran’s programme “obliterated”, western diplomats said the attacks caused severe damage but did not destroy Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure or its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
UN sanctions were later reimposed on Iran after it failed to address the concerns of western powers including the status of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and its lack of co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.
The measures took effect in late September after the UK, Germany and France triggered a “snapback” mechanism, citing Iran’s “significant non-performance” of its nuclear commitments.
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