Iran's Biggest Protests Are Exposing Russia's Limits - The Global Gambit - Pyotr Kurzin

Russia presents itself as a resurgent global power — but the cracks are becoming impossible to ignore - especially for Iran.

As Iran is rocked by nationwide protests and deepening economic collapse, Moscow’s response has been strikingly absent. No material support. No deterrent signals. Just silence. And that silence tells us far more than any official statement ever could.

In this episode, we examine what Iran’s unrest exposes about the real limits of Russia’s power — and why the so-called Russia-Iran axis looks less like a strategic alliance and more like a relationship of convenience under strain. With Russia overstretched militarily and economically, and Iran openly admitting systemic failure, this moment reveals how fragile today’s “anti-Western” partnerships really are.

We also explore how Venezuela fits into this broader picture, and why these relationships are unraveling simultaneously under U.S. pressure, internal decay, and shifting global power dynamics. This is not about imminent collapse — but about narrowing options, exposed weaknesses, and regimes discovering they cannot rely on one another when it actually matters.

So what happens when a supposed great power can no longer protect its partners? And what does that mean for the global balance going into 2026?