July 25, 2025: Russian warlord Vladimir Putin wants to establish a Russian Drone force, which will also be a new branch of the armed forces. There are also plans to train operators using simulators. Soldiers with experience operating drones will act as instructors.

Then there is manufacturing. Russia lost most of its Western trading partners in 2022. Western sanctions crippled Russian finances. Russia still trades with China. China cannot trade much with Russia as that would risk China enduring trade sanctions. Trade with Western Europe and the Americans sustains the Chinese export economy and China cannot afford to endanger that.

Russia has options. North Korea has a feeble economy with a GDP of $30 billion and is crushed by economic sanctions. Then there is sanctioned Iran, which has oil to export and had a GDP of over $400 billion before the recent Israeli airstrikes devastated their economy, air defense and nuclear systems. Iran aided in the construction of a Russian drone factory. Russia has over fifty firms manufacturing over two dozen types of drones. Some of these drones have a range of up to 3,600 kilometers.

Meanwhile Russia is creating a drone production system that will eventually employ over 300,000 workers, technicians, designers and electronic specialists.

There is a transportation route Russia developed using the existing north-south trade route to Iran. Russia wants to improve it with road and rail connections. Shipping by sea is less than 20 percent the cost of rail transport. The road and rail lines are essential for getting cargo to inland destinations, but most of the tonnage is moved the longest distances by ship. For this reason Russia has long maintained a water route from Russia to Iran via the Caspian Sea and a series of canals. In 2023 Russia brought in dredging equipment for a major, and overdue, dredging of the heavily used Volga-Don Canal that enables ships to get from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea. Because of the war in Ukraine, and Iran supplying weapons and equipment to Russia, canal traffic was up 15 percent in 2022 over the previous year. By 2025 traffic increased by over 20 percent.

Transportation is achieved by linking the Don and Volga rivers. This enables use of the Caspian Sea for access to the Black Sea and the world's oceans. Iran suffered substantial damage from the recent Israeli airstrikes and it is unclear how much damage this did to the Iranian transportation system. The full extent of that damage won’t be known until the war is over. Iran might have a new government that is hostile to cooperation with Russia.