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.
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