Vladimir Putin has pulled back the curtain on what has been described as the ‘largest and most secret’ drone factory ahead of a joint naval drill with Iran.
Footage – a blend of Cold War secrecy and TikTok-era propaganda – offers a rare glimpse of the Yelabuga production facility in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.
Recorded by Zvezda, the Russian defence ministry’s TV channel, it shows the star of Putin’s war in Ukraine – the ‘Geran-2’ drones.
This is the Kremlin’s locally branded version of Iranian-designed Shahed 136.
Depending on the design, the long-range exploding aircraft has a range of 600 to 1,200 miles, and has been deployed to cause carnage across Ukraine.
Timur Shagivaliev, CEO of the Yelabuga Special Economic Zone, told the channel: ‘This is the largest such plant in the world and the most secret.
‘At one time, the plan was to produce several thousand (Geran drones) – now we are producing nine times more than planned.’
As part of its efforts to scale up development of drones to catch up with Ukraine, Russia now produces more than 5,000 long-range drones each month.
Above the entrance to the factory, a giant screen read, ‘Kurchatov, Korolyov and Stalin are living in your DNA,’ featuring portraits of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov and the father of the Soviet space programme Sergei Korolev.
But perhaps the most surreal detail is not the scale of the drone operation at Yelabuga and who is building them.
Teenagers – some barely old enough to drive – have bee recruited to work on the assembly lines at the factory.
They are shown working at various stages of the production process, highlighting a recruitment programme targeting students as young as 15 from local technical colleges.
‘There are young people, boys and girls, both working here and studying here in the college created by the same people who organised the production of Gerans,’ a voiceover in the Zvezda video says.
‘They invite schoolchildren here immediately after the ninth grade [aged 15 and 16], and after college they invite them to the plant.
‘Vladimir Putin has noted the experience of Yelabuga and even called for its replication.’
The drone production – using modified Shahed 136 technology – is another sign of the deepening cooperation between Russia and Iran.
Bonded over mutual hatred for the West and shared isolation, both nations have traded military technology and intelligencesince the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
To underscore this relationship further, the two have launched a joint naval drill in the Caspian Sea.
The CASAREX 2025 will be held under the slogan ‘Together for a Safe and Secure Caspian Sea’ and will take place over three days.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported: ‘The primary goal of the operation is to reinforce maritime safety and security while fostering greater cooperation among the naval forces of these countries.’
It is still unclear what vessels will be involved in the operation, but the Caspian Sea hold major strategic importance for both Russia and Iran as a secure, sanctions-free zone, away from Western eyes.
It also serves as a vital logistics and trade corridor, linking both nations.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
