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.
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.