Russia's Medvedev to Attend Funeral of Iran's Late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev will attend the state funeral of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Kremlin confirmed Thursday. Khamenei was killed at age 86 in a U.S.-Israeli strike on Feb. 28. He was succeeded by his son Mojtaba Khamenei, who was injured in the same strike and has not appeared in public since. President Vladimir Putin denounced Khamenei’s killing as a “cynical assassination.” Long-delayed funeral processions for Khamenei will begin on Saturday in Tehran and conclude on July 9. He will be buried in his hometown of Mashhad, with additional ceremonies planned in the Iranian city of Qom and neighboring Iraq. A separate event for foreign heads of state is scheduled for Friday, with representatives from around 30 countries expected to attend. Iran’s Ambassador in Moscow, Kazem Jalali, said earlier this week that Medvedev would attend the memorial service, leading a Russian delegation of Foreign Ministry officials, as well as religious leaders from the Russian Orthodox Church and Sunni and Shiite theologians. The Russian delegation’s trip comes amid an indefinite suspension of commercial flights to and from Iran by Russia’s civil aviation authorities due to regional military tensions. Russia is one of Iran’s closest partners. It has repeatedly condemned the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic republic as an “unprovoked act of armed aggression.” In 2025, Russia and Iran signed a strategic partnership agreement that includes provisions for countering shared threats. That pact stops short of mutual defense obligations, unlike the security agreement Russia has signed with North Korea. Reuters contributed reporting.