Russia used an ally to produce an essential weapon in the war. Then discarded it

Almost a thousand kilometers from Moscow there is an expanding place with new production facilities and dormitories. All to increase exponentially from a weapon

“Finally, something no one else has,” says a Russian journalist during a television documentary about the largest drone factory in the country. “This two -stroke motor production is nowhere else in Russia.”

The factory in question, Alabuga, nearly a thousand kilometers east of Moscow, in the Russian region of Tartarist, has been producing more and more Iranian conception attack drones (known in Russia as Geran), but the man behind the site believes this may be one of his greatest deeds.

“This is a complete installation,” adds executive director Timur Shagivaleev in the documentary, explaining that most drone components are now produced locally. “Aluminum bars arrive, engines are made from them; Microelelectronics are made from electric chips; fuselagens are made of carbon fiber and fiberglass – this is a complete place.”

The allegation indicates that the production of the Iranian conception of conception, which has been the backbone of the Moscow Drone War against Ukraine, was now mostly absorbed by the Russian military industrial machine. Analysts and secret services employees believe that 90% of production phases currently occur in Alabuga or other Russian facilities.

For this purpose, recent satellite images show that the site continues to expand, with new production facilities and dormitories that allow it to exponentially increase production. The analysts with whom CNN spoke believes that this growth would allow Russia to export an updated and tested combat version of the drone that originally imported from Iran – perhaps even for the ally.

But a source of western secret services states that the expansion and complete Russian integration of Shahed-136 have effectively marginalized Iran, revealing a cleavage between Moscow and Temerão. It is said that the Islamic Republic has been increasingly impatient with the little return it has received from Russia, although it supported Moscow’s war effort not only with drones, but also with missiles and other goods.

This discontent overflowed during Israel’s 12 -day bombing campaign against Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program in June, during which Russia’s conviction statements were seen as insignificant support for a country that has helped Moscow since the beginning of the large -scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Iran may have expected Russia to do more or take more measures without being forced to do so,” Ali Akbar Dareini, an analyst at the Tehran-based Strategic Strategic Studies Center, the Iranian President’s Office investigation. “They may not intervene militarily, but they may provide operational support, in terms of sending weapons, technological support, sharing information or gender.”

But the distant approach to Russia was not surprising to the Western secret services official with whom CNN spoke, which argues that this showed the “purely transactional and utilitarian nature” of Russian cooperation with Iran.

“This explicit distancing demonstrates that Russia never intervenes beyond its immediate interests, even when a partner – in this case an essential drone supplier – is attacked,” he says.

Strategic partnership

After Russia launched its large -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it began importing Iranian shaved drones. In early 2023, Moscow and Tehran signed a $ 1.75 billion agreement for Russia to make the drones internally.

The six thousand drones until September 2025 stipulated in the initial contract were manufactured about a year ahead of schedule and, according to Ukraine’s defense services, Alabuga is now pumping more than 5,500 units per month. It is also doing so more efficiently and economically.

“By 2022, Russia paid an average of $ 200,000 for one of these drones,” said a source of Ukraine defense services. “In 2025, this number fell to approximately 70,000 US dollars.”

Ukraine also said Russia also modernized the drone, with improved communications, more lasting batteries and much larger warheads, making them more deadly and difficult to overthrow.

Western secret services official says Iran initially seemed to have embraced Russia’s efforts to locate about 90% of Shahed 136 production in Alabuga, but Moscow’s updates seem to have caught him off guard.

“This evolution marks a gradual loss of Iran control over the final product, which is now largely locally manufactured and independently manufactured,” the source explains, adding that Moscow’s ultimate goal is to “master the production cycle and break free from future negotiations.”

Dareini says Russia’s predatory behavior is not surprising and describes the relationship between the two countries as “both cooperation and competition.”

“It is obvious that the Russians want more, they want to receive more and give less, and this also applies to Iran,” he explains. “Iran has provided Russia drones, technology and the factory, but it wasn’t for free.”

But in the expansion process, says the employee, Alabuga failed to fulfill the obligations to its Iranian partners. According to them, in addition to the loss of control over the final product, Iranian authorities and companies, namely Sahara Thunder, complained that some payments have not been made, in part due to the suffocating international sanctions to which the Russian economy has been subject to more than three years.

CNN could not verify this independently. CNN contacted the administration of Alabuga for comments, but has no response yet.

“These obstacles come to join Tehran’s frustration with the blockages that prevent the transfer of Russian aeronautical technologies to Iran, promised by Moscow in exchange for their support,” the employee adds.

Save the relationship?

The ceasefire between Israel and Iran led Tehran to withdraw from the international sphere to regroup, reorganize, and rebuild what was destroyed during the conflict. And beyond the damage well publicized in the nuclear facilities of Iran, Israel aimed at several other Iranian facilities.

David Albright, former UN weaponry inspector and director of the Institute’s Reflection Group for International Science and Safety (ISIS), believes that the expansion of alabuga can allow Moscow to provide some significant support and send some of Shahed’s updated versions back to Iran.

“Some of the drone production facilities [do Irão] were bombarded and many [drones]Therefore, as a way to recover the stock, they will be able to do so, ”says Albright.“ And then Iran could do reverse engineering or receive the technology to manufacture better quality Shahed ”.

“I think it’s very dangerous,” he adds.

Another military equipment may also be coming to Tehran. Open-source flight screening data shows that a Gelix Airlines Ilyushin-76 military charging has flown from Moscow to Tehran on July 11.

IL-76 is a heavy transport aircraft often used by the Russian Armed Forces to carry military troops and equipment, and Gelix Airlines has been associated with the transport of military equipment in the past.

The plane was about three hours on land and then returned to Moscow.

CNN failed to confirm what was on board, but the Iranian media reported that it was the final components of a Russian Air Defense System S-400.

The CNN asked the Russian Ministry of Defense to comment on the tension between the two countries, but obtained no response. Similarly, CNN also contacted the Iranian government, both in Tehran and through its Embassy in the United Kingdom, but has not yet received an answer.

These last events emphasize Dareini’s central conviction about relations between the two countries: although there may be tension, ultimately will also gather the benefits of the partnership.

“Iran has, and most likely will have, the things you need for your own security,” he adds. “Whether it is military equipment or economic cooperation, technology and anything necessary.”