https://www.radiofarda.com/a/production-of-iranian-uavs-with-russia/32491886.html
Research report: Joint production of "Shahed" UAV by Iran and Russia in the territory of Tatarstan
July 15, 2023
This satellite image shows the construction stages of the UAV factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Russia
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The new report of two Russian investigative media reveals the details of the preparations for the production of the "Shaheed" UAV in the territory of Tatarstan in western Russia.
While the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran still denies providing arms support to Russia, it is estimated that during the last three months, Shahid model drones have made up about 60% of the weapons used by the Russian military in air strikes against Ukraine.
Alabuga, located in the Autonomous Republic of Tatarstan, 1,300 kilometers east of Moscow and more than 3,000 kilometers north of Tehran, was officially announced as a special economic zone about 20 years ago, and it has progressed so much that seven years ago, the Financial Times magazine named it the best special economic zone. Europe announced.
But since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine, the imposition of sanctions and the withdrawal of Western companies, including Ford of America, which had built a large car factory in this region, the situation of Alabuga has changed fundamentally, and while the departure of investors has caused financial problems, forced recall It has become a serious challenge for the personnel of this special economic zone to be sent to the front.
Since the beginning of the war, only factories in Russia that produce weapons on the order of the government have no financial problems and their workers have been exempted from military service. For this reason, the management of Alabuga has "decided to devote part of its scientific-industrial capacities to the production of drones".
Now, a new report shows that last fall, an agreement was signed for the production of witness drones in Tatarstan.
In a joint investigation, Russian media Protokol and Erzort reported that a complex with an area of 40,000 square meters in Alabuga is dedicated to the production of witness drones and will expand to 100,000 square meters after completion.
According to a source whose identity has not been revealed, a letter signed by Sergei Shaygo, the Minister of Defense of Russia, has been seen by this source, which initialed the financial resources necessary to purchase drone technology from Iran; According to this source, the letter was subsequently sent to Vladimir Putin's office for signature.
According to this letter, Russia has paid 80 billion rubles to Iran, of which 30 billion is the government budget, but it is not clear exactly which institution will pay the other 50 billion rubles. It is suspected that Vatb Bank, whose agency was recently opened in Tehran, has taken over the financing of this project.
Although Iran has always claimed that it is looking for buying and selling in national currency, the sources of two Russian media say that Tehran refused to receive rubles for its drones and asked for gold, and it seems that a plane was prepared to transfer this gold to Tehran. But later, the Iranian side changed its mind and demanded to receive dollars.
According to the reporters of Protokol and Arzoort, they have documents related to the production plan of Iranian drones in Russia, which shows that the parties are trying to hide in this process. Even though this document has the photo of witness drones on its last page, the name of the project, the production of the boat, and the contracting party are not Iran, but Belarus.
According to this document, in the first stage, Iran is obliged to provide technology and all the necessary parts to Russia, and also to train about 200 personnel, and in the second stage, all the parts of Shahid UAVs will be produced in Alabuga, and Russian engineers will work on improving the UAVs. Iranians will work. At this stage, only the warhead of these drones will be supplied by Iran for at least two to three years.
About a month ago, the United States published documents on the military participation of Iran and Russia in the war with Ukraine, and one of the pictures showed the construction of a UAV factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Russia.
John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator of the National Security Council of the White House, announced that the Shahid UAV factory in Tatarstan will be fully operational by the beginning of next year.
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