Drone team: Russia’s plan to arm Iran
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Kremlin planned to provide Iran with unjammable drones, plus training in how to use them, according to leaked documents seen exclusively by The Economist. Meanwhile there are nearly 20,000 merchant seamen stranded in the Gulf. And a tribute to Craig Venter, dark horse of the Human Genome Project.
Watch extended clips from Economist Insider here.
Guests and host:
- Shashank Joshi, defence editor
- Joshua Spencer, Asia news editor
- Geoffrey Carr, senior editor, science and technology
- Rosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Iran war, Russia, drones
- Commercial shipping
- Craig Venter
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist |
| 0:02.0 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Jason Palmer and I'm Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:19.0 | Today on the show we learn about the thousands of merchant seamen stuck in the Gulf |
| 0:23.8 | and pay tribute to Craig Venter. |
| 0:33.5 | But first... |
| 0:47.9 | ... But first, There are many reasons why America's war on Iran has been failing. |
| 0:51.1 | One is the effectiveness of Iranian drones. |
| 0:56.7 | Now, a confidential document obtained exclusively by the Economist from a trusted source reveals new information, exposing Russia's proposed arming of Iran against American forces. |
| 1:04.8 | The Economist has seen leaked Russian intelligence documents that outline a new level of support that the Kremlin is prepared |
| 1:13.4 | to give Iran, which would have involved killing Americans and repelling an American amphibious |
| 1:19.5 | invasion of Iran. |
| 1:22.7 | Shashank Joshi is our defense editor. |
| 1:25.3 | The documents that we've seen describe a proposal from Russia to provide Iran with |
| 1:32.5 | 5,000 short-range fiber-optic drones, which are the kind used in Ukraine to very good |
| 1:38.2 | effect, as well as an unknown number of longer-range satellite-guided drones drones and training to use both kinds. |
| 1:47.7 | Until now, we knew Vladimir Putin's government had provided intelligence that had helped Iran |
| 1:53.4 | target American forces in the Middle East, but we didn't know it had also proposed sending |
| 2:00.2 | relatively innovative weapons |
| 2:02.0 | in big enough numbers that could have really inflicted considerable casualties on America |
| 2:07.0 | and on Allied forces had there been some kind of land operation. |
| 2:12.7 | You say that this is a proposal. |
... |
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