Kommersant: ......At the end of last week, the popular Israeli Internet site Debka reported that Iran is signing a multibillion-dollar contract with Russia for the delivery of 250 Su-30MKM fighter planes and 20 Il-78MKM aerial refueling planes.........That same information was published in the influential Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The Israeli press reports caused consternation in Russia. “It's either a provocation or it's delusion,” Dmitry Shugaev, chief of staff of the Rosoboronexport general director told Kommersant.
A Sukhoi spokesman told Kommersant that “It is a provocation by the Israeli media. here are no negotiations with Iran for the delivery of fighter planes, much less such a huge lot.” Nor does the Russian Foreign Ministry or Defense Ministry know anything about them.
A high-placed representative of the United Aviation Construction Corp. told Kommersant that filling such a large order in the next few years would not be possible even theoretically. “There are only three plants in Russia that assembler fighter planes of the Su-30 type – in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Irkutsk and Novosibirsk, and they are all engaged with orders. So there is no one to make 250 planes for Iran,” he said.
Independent experts also say that such an order is unfillable. “Even with good market conditions for oil prices, Iran isn't likely to come up with the necessary sum. Two hundred fifty fighters of the Su-303MKM type – that's about $10 billion,” noted Konstantin Makienko of the Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technology.