Russia is helping Iran with advanced drone tactics from its war in Ukraine to hit US and Gulf nation targets in the Middle East, according to a Western intelligence official.

Russia President Vladimir Putin knows how to find opportunity in crisis, and the metastasizing Iran war is the latest case in point.

Iran has threatened to set oil and gas infrastructure in the Middle East “on fire” if its energy sites are attacked.

For much of last year, Washington sought to starve Moscow’s war machine of cash, in part by removing one of its most loyal customers: India.