Russia has shared with Iran its developments in the field of electronic intelligence in exchange for the supply of kamikaze drones, sources say The Wall Street Journal.
Interlocutors of the publication among American and Iranian officials said that cooperation between Russia and Iran in the field of cyber technologies intensified after Tehran agreed, in addition to drones, to supply Moscow with short-range missiles, as well as tank and artillery shells. Iran expects to receive not only cyber weapons, but also Russian helicopters, fighter jets and long-range missiles.
Moscow and Tehran entered into an agreement on cooperation in the cyber sphere two years ago, but Moscow has long resisted the transfer of its electronic technologies to Tehran, fearing that they will be put up for sale on the dark web. However, after the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia provided Iran with its know-how in the field of tracking communications, eavesdropping and photographic devices and lie detectors.
Moscow has apparently already shared software with Tehran to hack mobile phones and computers of oppositionists and dissidents, WSJ sources say. The Russian authorities have come to the conclusion that the advantages of developing military relations with Iran outweigh any other disadvantages, the newspaper’s interlocutors believe.
According to the newspaper, citing documents from the Citizen Lab research center at the University of Toronto, the Russian company Protei Ltd began to supply Internet censorship software to the Iranian mobile operator Ariantel.
According to cybersecurity analysts, Protei Ltd develops hardware and software designed to help governments monitor telephone communications, email and credit card transactions. The company has contracts with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
In the fall of 2022, the Russian army began to actively use Iranian-made Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones (in Russia they were renamed Geran-1 and Geran-2) for massive attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. In February 2023, it became known that Iran handed over to Russia a batch of reusable long-range attack drones. Western media have repeatedly written that the authorities of Russia and Iran are agreeing on the possibility of building a plant for the production of drones in Russia.
It was also reported that Iran intends to supply Russia with Fateh-110 and Zulfikar ballistic missiles, the range of which is 300 and 700 km, respectively. In early March, the Financial Times wrote that Russia has so far refrained from buying ballistic missiles from Iran due to fears that after that the United States will begin to supply Ukraine with long-range ATACMS missiles.
Source: Racurs
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