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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Treasure