The Iranian & Russian Ambassadors Debunked False Claims Of India’s “Betrayal”

Pepe Escobar alleged over the past week that India sequentially betrayed them both.

The Iranian Ambassador to India responded to a question from RT India on Friday about conflicting reports that Iran had granted India permission to use the Strait of Hormuz by declaring that “Yes, because India is our friend. You will see it within two or three hours.” His confirmation came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his first call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian since the Third Gulf War began while his top diplomat Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held his fourth one with his counterpart.

This news might come as a surprise for many members of Russia’s “global media ecosystem” after one of its top influencers, Pepe Escobar, published an article about how India supposedly “betrayed” both Russia and Iran. He also spoke about it on a podcast with Judge Andrew Napolitano and earlier posted about it on X after falling for a now-debunked viral Pakistani AI-assisted fake video of the Indian Army Chief allegedly admitting to giving Israel the coordinates of the Iranian ship that the US later sunk.

Pepe is friends with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, his spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Duma Deputy Chairman Alexander Babakov, Commissioner for Integration and Macroeconomics within the Eurasian Economic Commission Sergey Glazyev, and is a privileged affiliate of Russia’s top think tank, the Valdai Club, et al. He’s therefore perceived as “the voice of Russian insiders”, “Russia’s BRICS guru” due to his work on this subject, and “the foreign face of Russian soft power”. That’s problematic in this context.

He wrote on X that there’s “Plenty of privileged info” in his two-part article series about the Third Gulf War, the second of which was shared two paragraphs above and the first of which can be read here. The first part is relevant since he wrote therein that “India has betrayed, sequentially, both full BRICS members Russia and Iran.” He also described it as “untrustworthy”, unworthy of leading the Global South like it aspires to do, and allegedly eligible for being suspended or even expelled from BRICS.

The Iranian dimension of India’s supposed “betrayal” was just debunked by the Iranian Ambassador to India, while the Russian one was debunked the day prior by Russia’s Ambassador to India, who gave a detailed interview about bilateral relations to newly launched RT India. It was analyzed here, but the relevant highlights are that he effusively praised India and specifically its chairmanship of BRICS. It’s therefore flat-out false that “India has betrayed, sequentially, both full BRICS members Russia and Iran.”

While casual observers might believe that his “privileged info” about this comes from his vast network of Russian official friends, thus leading to the false impression that Russia supports his attacks against India, he’s previously disclosed ties to at least three foreign spy agencies who might be the real source. He admitted in April 2024 to being in touch with “two intel agencies from two separate Asian nations” and then let slip last month that he has “a friend in one of the European intel services” too.

Therefore, one of these sources or perhaps some other thus far undisclosed intel one could have been responsible for encouraging him to falsely claim that “India has betrayed, sequentially, both full BRICS members Russia and Iran” whose ambassadors to India just debunked him. Nevertheless, casual observers might still believe that his Russian official friends are behind this, thus impugning its image in their minds. The worst-case scenario would be if Indian officials thought this too, which is possible.

The lesson is that great influence carries great responsibility, and someone like Pepe who’s known to be “the voice of Russian insiders” due to his vast network of Russian official friends shouldn’t launder as fact any rumors about its strategic partners like India. Although shared in a personal capacity, most will assume that his “privileged info” came from Russia, so hopefully he doesn’t make this mistake again. His Russian official friends might also be upset with him if their Indian counterparts inquire about this.