By Alexander Kovalenko

"Tonight, Iran launched a massive combined strike on Israel.

According to preliminary information, the Islamic Republic employed 185 Shahed-136 kamikaze drones and their analogues, 36 cruise missiles, and 110 ballistic "surface-to-surface" missiles. I am confident that this data will continue to be updated.

However, this text will not be dedicated to analyzing the strikes inflicted, the effectiveness of Israeli air defense, but to something entirely different. It's an attempt to find an answer to the question: how did this become possible? And not just this strike, but many events over the past thirty years... Such as the first and second Chechen wars, the five-day war in Georgia, the massacre in Syria, hybrid and full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Yesterday, as the preparation for the massive strike on Israel by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was just beginning, I came across a screenshot from a video showing the deployment of the 1L222M Avtobaza-M electronic warfare systems in Tehran. These systems, as you can understand from their name, are of Russian origin and play an important role in protecting air defense networks from electronic warfare by jamming GPS signals, radars, and satellites at high altitudes and over long distances, as well as for sudden attacks on enemy aircraft and attacking systems, effectively blinding their systems.

It seems, where did Iran get a modern Russian electronic warfare complex from?

Just recently, I published an article dedicated to ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles). In that article, I noted that since April 2023, Russian occupiers have been using Iranian ATGMs Dehlaviyeh in Ukraine, which were adopted by Iran in 2012 and are an exact copy of the Russian ATGM "Kornet", adopted in 1998. And recently, North Korea presented its ATGM Bulsae-5 "불새-5", which is a copy of the Iranian ATGM Dehlaviyeh, which in turn is a copy of the Russian ATGM "Kornet".

Tonight, ballistic missiles were launched at Israel, covering from a thousand to more than a thousand kilometers. This became possible because Iran has been successfully developing its missile program since the early 1990s, obtaining the necessary technologies from North Korea and the USSR/Russia. In turn, North Korea began demonstrating successes in its missile program earlier than Iran.

In 1985, Iran acquired about 100 Hwasong-5 missiles from North Korea, created based on the R-17 OTRK "Elbrus", and then Hwasong-6, with the transfer of missile technologies, thanks to which Iran was able to create the Shahab-1 missile.

North Korea itself developed its missile program, using not only the Soviet R-17 OTRK "Elbrus" and TRK "Tochka-U" as a base, on the basis of which the KN-02 Toksa (Hwasong-11) was created, and later KN-24, but also the already Russian 9M723 OTRK "Iskander", on the basis of which KN-23 were created, which have already shelled Ukraine.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of all that the USSR, and subsequently Russia, helped outcast countries in developing. Terrorist, predatory regimes received support in developing their means of war and killing, while Western countries turned a blind eye to what was happening for more than three decades. Instead of neutralizing and leveling this development, they tried to negotiate with them, to engage in dialogue with the murderers...

The era of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher has passed. Instead of adequate, equivalent responses, discussions are about nothing. Terrorists from the UN podium spread heresy and justify bloodshed – genocide! The leader of a state aspiring to the title of world hegemon, a beacon of democracy, calls for avoiding escalation for a country towards which hundreds of rockets and kamikaze drones are directed.

And Russia benefits from this.

Strikes on Israel divert attention from bloodshed in Ukraine, just like the massacre on October 7th... But the United States, mired in political turmoil on Capitol Hill, is not ready for two challenges at once, outcast countries and dictatorial regimes see the weakness of the world policeman. An era of unpunished terror is dawning, which is only to Russia's advantage and which it will continue to stimulate in one form or another?"