Report: Russian missile experts flew to Iran during Israel standoff

Report: Russian missile experts flew to Iran during Israel standoff

A Reuters review of travel records and employment data suggests that several top Russian missile experts have visited Iran over the past year as Tehran ramps up defense cooperation with Moscow. The records show all the Russians have high-level military backgrounds, including experts in air defense, missiles and artillery. The flights came amid tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Iran

The seven weapons experts were booked to fly from Moscow to Tehran on two flights on April 24 and September 17 last year, according to a new Reuters report, detailing the group bookings as well as a passenger manifest for the second flight.

A decree published by the Russian government and a document on the Russian foreign ministry’s website showed the booking records included the men’s passport numbers, with six of the seven carrying the number “20” at the beginning of their passport numbers.

That suggests the passports are used for official state business, issued to government officials on foreign business trips and military personnel operating from abroad. Reuters was unable to determine what the seven were doing in Iran.

A senior Iranian defense official said Russian missile experts made multiple visits to Iranian missile production sites last year, including two underground facilities, some of them in September. The official did not specify the location, requesting anonymity to discuss security matters.

A Western defense official, who monitors Iranian defense cooperation with Russia and also asked not to be identified, said an unspecified number of Russian missile experts visited an Iranian missile base, about 15 km (9 miles) west of the port of Amirabad on Iran’s Caspian Sea coast, in September.

Reuters was unable to determine whether the visitors the officials referred to included Russians on both trips. A review of Russian databases containing information on citizens’ jobs or places of work, including tax records, telephone numbers and cars, showed that the seven Russians identified by Reuters all had high-level military backgrounds, including two colonels and two lieutenant colonels.

The records showed that two were experts in air defense missile systems, three were artillery and rocket specialists, and one had a background in advanced weapons development and another worked at a missile testing range. Reuters was unable to determine whether all were still in those roles, as the employment data ranged from 2021 to 2024.

Their trips to Tehran came at a critical time for Iran, which has found itself drawn into a tit-for-tat war with arch-foe Israel, with both sides launching military strikes in April and October. Reuters reached all of the men by phone. Five denied they had been to Iran, worked for the military or both, while one declined to comment and another hung up.

The Iranian defense and foreign ministries declined to comment, as did the public relations office of the Revolutionary Guards, the elite force that oversees Iran’s ballistic missile program. The Russian defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Cooperation between the two countries has already affected Russia’s war in Ukraine, with large numbers of Iranian Shahed drones deployed to the battlefield. Moscow and Tehran signed a 20-year military agreement in the Russian capital in January.