Putin ally Nikolai Patrushev travels to Iran for talks

Russia's powerful Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev was in Tehran on Wednesday for consultations with Iranian officials on security matters, the TASS news agency reported.

"In Tehran, Patrushev will hold scheduled Russian-Iranian security consultations with the participation of Security Council experts and representatives from both countries' ministries and agencies," TASS cited the Russian Security Council's press service as saying.

The visit comes as allegations that Iran has supplied "kamikaze" drones to Russia to support Moscow's invasion of Ukraine remain in focus. Over the weekend, Tehran acknowledged for the first time it had sent a "small number" of drones to Moscow, but said they were shipped before the war began.

Kyiv and the West say Russia has used the Iranian drones to target Ukraine's energy infrastructure in a series of attacks over the last weeks that have forced Ukraine to install rolling blackouts in major cities, including Kyiv, to preserve power.