sina azodi, concern for the western allies. sina azodi. thank _ concern for the western allies.ch for joining us on newsday with your thoughts. well, if you want to get in touch with me on any of the stories you've seen so far on newsday — that visit by president putin to iran, for instance — i'm on twitter — @bbckarishma. i would love to hear your thoughts. the race to become the next leader of the conservative party and prime minister has moved another step forward as the four remaining candidates have been reduced to three. kemi badenoch failed to get enough votes from mps to move votes from mps to move into the next round of the contest. the three remaining candidates must now face a further vote on wednesday to pick the final two contenders. the winner will replace borisjohnson in seven weeks' time. back to the situation in sri lanka now, and whoever takes charge of the country will have to deal with a deep economic crisis. sri lanka is running out of foreign reserves, leading to shortages of fuel and medicine. the country's lucrative tea industry — one of the largest in th

earlier, i spoke to sina azodi from the atlantic council fellow and asked what president putin and thei think that president putin's trip to iran was quite essential in the context of what we've been hearing. recently, we heard that iran supplied drones to russia. iran issued a vgue statement, they did not confirm it. so i believe there's a possibility that the discussion over drones will come in. i think also that there is trade involved. iran ministry issued a statement announcing that the largest investment in iran's oil industry has been signed with russia. so i think it is an important trade for both iran and russia, which both have been isolated due to the sanctions of the united states and the west. mr azodi, it's not like iran and russia have been fast friends, to use a colloquial phrase. fast friends, or bffs, to use a colloquial phrase. is this more of a marriage of convenience than a long—lasting relationship? absolutely. there have been times that russia has undermined iran's interest. when iran was selling oil to china at a discounted price, russia also began selling its o