According to an alleged surprise agreement between Russia and Iran that a thief team called the Prana Network “discovered,” Russia is expanding a shop in the Alabuga exclusive economic zone of Tatarstan to make at least 6, 000 Egyptian Shahed suicide drones annually.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly Iran’s terrorist military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ( IRGC), is the focus of The Prana Network’s enigmatic hacking effort.
The Prana Network claimed in February that it had infected an Egyptian before company’s email servers, which were reportedly facilitating the unlawful transfer of weapons from Iran to Russia. Russia has been accused for months of using Iranian drones to attack targets in Ukraine, despite Moscow’s ongoing diplomatic diplomatic row, indignant about Iranian drone imports, insisting that some Russian designs just happen to resemble the Iranian Shahed series of kamikaze drones.
An administrative building is on fire after a Shahed- 136 unmanned kamikaze drone attack on the railway infrastructure on May 17, 2024, in Kharkiv, Ukraine. ( Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images )
Earlier in the Ukrainian invasion, Western intelligence officials claimed that Russia had a glut of drones in place when it was trying to replenish its stock. Because Russian factories reportedly began producing Shahed-serie drone bombs, the Russians obviously came to the conclusion that Iran’s design was superior to their own, or at least more cost-effective.
What the hackers claim is a secret agreement between Iran and Russia that the latter will mass-produce Shahed 136 drones at a factory in Alabuga was revealed in the Prana Network hack. The alleged documents evasively referred to the drones as “motorboats.”
The alleged contract between Iran and Russia covered technology transfers, support equipment, spare parts, and software for the drones at a negotiated discount price of about 290, 000 U. S. dollars apiece. The total value of the contract was allegedly a hefty$ 1.75 billion.
According to hacked documents, Russia may have paid a large sum of money for gold. The Iranian government’s network of front companies in the Middle East and Asia, which Tehran uses to evade U.S. sanctions and violate international law, allegedly processed the payments and delivery of services.
The Alabuga plant is operating well ahead of schedule, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The , Journal, which often publishes rumors citing anonymous sources, claimed the plant , has already manufactured 4, 500 Shahed- 136 drones and is on its way to meeting the optimal production quota of 6, 000 units per year.
At an exhibition displaying the remains of Russian missiles and drones that were used to attack Kyiv on May 12, 2023, in Kyiv, Ukraine, are the remains of a Shahed- 136 drone. ( Oleksii Samsonov / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images )
According to Ukrainian military intelligence officials, the Iranian IRGC and its proxy Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist organization, are attempting to train Russian drone operators in Syria. The Ukrainians added that Russia is making warheads for the Shahed kamikaze drones domestically.
The Russian government sent businessmen to Uganda on Tuesday to hold a recruiting event for young female students, who were given a salary of triple the average in Uganda plus expenses to work at Russia’s drone factories because it was unable to gather enough skilled workers from the Tatarstan population to co-manage the drone factory.
Sources in Uganda claimed that teachers at schools were paid to help the Russian plot by recommending former students who might perform well on the drone assembly lines.  ,
Some of these teachers claimed they were unaware that Russians were attempting to recruit their students to create military drones, but the Kyiv Post reported that Russia had actually made promotional videos that showed Ugandan women wearing hazmat suits assembling reconnaissance drones for use against the Ukrainians.
Ukrainian officials claimed in April that they had launched successful drone attacks on Tatarstan, including one that left a factory producing Iranian Shahed drones with” significant damage.” Another strike targeted Russia’s third- largest oil refinery, located in the industrialized area of Tatarstan.
The Russian military was “working to minimize this threat, and then eliminate it,” according to the Kremlin, which denounced Ukraine’s strikes as “terrorist activity.”
Additionally, late in April, Iranian state media unveiled a new series of high-end “loitering” drones that appeared to be utilizing technology from Russia’s Lancet drone, a successful weapon system for Russian forces in Syria and Ukraine.  ,
Although some observers noted that Iran has successfully spliced designs from Israeli, Chinese, and Taiwanese designs without any assistance from engineers from those nations, frequently by reverse engineering wreckage from crashed aircraft, this new Iranian drone appeared to be a two-way street for unmanned aerial vehicles ( UAV ) technology transfers between Iran and Russia.
