Russia sent missile men to Iran during confrontation with Israel - Reuters

According to the documents, the seven weapons experts were scheduled to fly from Moscow to Tehran on two flights on April 24 and September 17 last year.

All seven identified by Reuters have senior military backgrounds: two of them have the rank of colonel and two of them are lieutenant colonels.

Two of them are experts in anti-aircraft missile systems, three specialize in artillery and missile technology, one has experience in developing advanced weapons, and another has worked at a missile test site, records show.

Their flights to Tehran came at a difficult time for Iran, which is embroiled in a mutual war with arch-enemy Israel, during which both sides launched military strikes in April and October.

The booking records show the men's passport numbers, and six of the seven have the prefix 20. This means that the passport is used for official government business and is issued to civil servants on foreign business trips and military personnel stationed abroad.

Reuters was unable to find out what the seven were doing in Iran.

A senior Iranian defense ministry official said Russian missile experts made several visits to Iranian missile production facilities last year, including two underground sites, with some of the visits taking place in September. The official, who requested anonymity, did not identify the sites.

A Western defense official who monitors Iran's defense cooperation with Russia, who also requested anonymity, said that in September an unspecified number of Russian missile experts visited an Iranian missile base located about 15 km west of the port of Amirabad on Iran's Caspian Sea coast.

On January 17, 2025, Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a new 20-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement. However, according to British intelligence, the agreement is unlikely to mean any significant improvement in the partnership, as distrust between the two countries persists.