The United States has warned Iran that it will not allow it to develop the atomic bomb, but nothing has said, at least officially, of its murderous dolphins .
Russia is, behind the United States, the world's leading arms exporter: it sells tanks to India, helicopters to Egypt, missile defense systems to China, submarines to Algeria or planes to Angola.
And this despite the commercial sanctions imposed by the international community on the Government of Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
Iran is also subject to trade sanctions, in this case in punishment for its nuclear program, but could be preparing the purchase of airplanes and tanks in Russia in the coming months, according to US intelligence services.
Iran already has Russian weapons: the missile that shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane on January 7 was supposedly Russian-made.
The conflict with the United States following the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani has reactivated the fear of this arsenal, or about the possibility of receiving help to resume its nuclear program ( and get the atomic bomb in a matter of a year).
20 years ago, the situation was different: instead of bombs, dolphins were talked about .
Putin has just come to power in a still wobbly Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Among those who suffered from the strong economic crisis were Boris Zhurid, a doctor, submarine crew member , and owner of a herd of dolphins trained to kill by the Soviet Navy.
Trained to attack enemy divers (or even ships), the collapse of the Soviet Union led many of these animals to private dolphinariums where they played with tourists .
In March of the year 2000, Zhurid sold his entire pack to Iran, according to British public television (BBC), lacking the means to continue feeding them.
"It would have been sadistic to keep them in Sevastopol," he said, referring to the Soviet port on the Black Sea 1,100 miles west of the Iranian capital, Tehran. "I can't stand to see how my animals starve , we don't have medicines, which cost thousands of dollars, or more fish or food supplements," Zhurid explained.
Thus, the dolphins (in total, 27 animals, also counting a white whale , sea lions or seals), were flown to the Persian Gulf.
Years before they had received training to attack divers with harpoons attached to their backs, or to carry out suicide attacks with explosives against ships or submarines.
A Russian newspaper called them "mercenaries", saying that Iran had cheaply bought " an old secret Soviet weapon ".
The use that Iran has given to these animals, which can live up to 60 years, is unknown.