Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft have made an unusually dense series of flights to Tehran since late December as nationwide protests spread across Iran, according to The Moscow Times on January 9.
The outlet cited the trade publication Air Cargo Week as saying that Il-76TD aircraft, presented as civilian flights, operated regular rotations from Mineralnye Vody in southern Russia to Tehran between December 27, 2025, and January 1, 2026, routing over the Caucasus and avoiding airspace controlled by NATO member states.
Air Cargo Week said the repeated use of the same airframes over a short period and the preference for speed and reliability over cost pointed to deliberate tasking consistent with military logistics, rather than ad hoc charter cargo flights.
Letting the russuans store your gold is not a great idea. They wont give it back. I assume the Iranian leadership lnows this. They are getting something in return for giving up Irans gold reserve. Bad for Irans people.
Yup. During WW1, Romania sent their gold reserves and state archives, together with historical artifacts to Russia to avoid them getting captured by the advancing German Army. After the war the Russians refused to return the gold. They eventually returned the state archives but they still never returned the entire reserve.
What kind of idiot trusts Russia with their gold? They ain’t getting that back without a war.
He’s buying an exit plan
This seems to imply that the piece of shit Aytolllah is seriously considering that his regime won’t hold.
Let’s hope his evacuation plane (with his son and family members) will be shot down when they try to run.
Who gives a fuck about them really. Whether they die or live in exile, I’m cheering for the people of Iran
They’ve been fighting for freedom for a very long time, I hope they finally get it
Me too!
I’d be happy to see him at the end of a rope, but I’ll settle for him just fucking off and never returning.
Could it be time for Al Khamenei to join Yanukovich and Assad in Putins closet?
Cough
History repeats
Damn, I was not aware of that one.
TIL …
that town is just a bit north to border with chechenya, going in straight line from there to teheran overflies only russian, azeri and iranian airspace. the only nato member nearby is turkey, and you have to go out of the way to hit it. azeri-iranian relations are suboptimal, but even then they can go over caspian if they want to avoid it
map would explain it much better
If true that’s bad news for Ukraine. I fully expect Putin to keep this gold for himself and use it to fund his war for longer.
I don’t know if the actual value of the gold is enough to really move the needle on a modern government war budget. Enough to make a small group insanely rich, definitely.
