I'm not posting these to be a sensationalist. I'm posting for the sake of transparency.
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.
“The Islamic Republic is today a zombie regime,” argues Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Its legitimacy, ideology, economy and leader are dead or dying. What keeps it alive is lethal force. It kills to live and lives to kill. Brutality can delay the regime’s funeral, but it can’t restore the pulse.”
Iran’s supreme leader sets stage for harsher crackdown as protest movement swells https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/09/iran-supreme-leader-harsher-crackdown-protest-movement-swells?CMP=share_btn_url
