Iran and Russia have initialed contracts worth around $40 billion, including for power engineering and railroad projects, Ali Akbar Velayati, top adviser to Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying in Moscow on Thursday. Velayati said he had discussed some of the projects with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said Tehran was interested in obtaining a loan from Russia for Iran’s railroads and nuclear power engineering, Reuters reported. He said the package of projects had been signed in the past few months. “They have been initialed and are ready for implementation,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
