IL-86 is a civilian plane (for some 350 pax). Production stopped in 90's. Never saw, heard of, read about its tanker verison.
The main tanker is IL-78. In old days (until late 80's) there were quite some Myasischev 3M tankers (converted bombers).

As for "old blokes", their presence is easily explicable.
First, it's a sort of a resort trip. Thus, better give this bonus to elder guys, younger ones can wait :-)
Second, as there obviously are some socialising events with the locals during this mission, it's better to have experienced lads. They would not be confused to chat with local generals, can consume endless amount of hard drinks and not get drunk, can tell many stories, etc. :-)

Old blokes are surely the ones who order and organise such trips so it's understandable if a disproportionate number of portly Generals, Group Captains etc. allocate themselves to go along.
Jollies for the boys applies to old gits too...

Do we have any idea what route they took to get there?

Big ol' orbit mid-point during the flight. Are we sure they don't have an AAR capability?

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....066c5440dc.jpg
Wiki:-

"The Tu-160 is powered by four Kuznetsov NK-32 afterburning turbofan engines, the most powerful ever fitted to a combat aircraft. Unlike the American B-1B Lancer, which reduced the original Mach 2+ requirement for the B-1A to achieve a smaller radar cross-section, the Tu-160 retains variable intake ramps, and is capable of reaching Mach 2.05 speed at altitude.[38] The Tu-160 is equipped with a probe-and-drogue in-flight refueling system for extended-range missions, although it is rarely used."

" The photos from Venezuela show the aircraft not to be fitted with probes. " - those darned Ruskis have tricked you, Sir

You can see the extended probe and doors in this video

Looks like a very short visit to Venezuela. The two Tu-160s and the ground controllers have been noted active on HF on their way home today.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-v...-idUSKBN1OB2II

Makes sense - can you imagine the amount of drag that probe would add at Mach 2? And we're talking a long range aircraft - the weight of making it retractable would be negligible compared to the impact on range of getting rid of that drag.
Not to mention the effect on radar cross section.

I would imagine that the orbit mid Atlantic on the way out was because the bottle of vodka had rolled into a distant corner of the cockpit.

I would be interested if the powers that be would publish the basics of the compliance or non-compliance with flight plan notification that was used in this, and similar, long range Russian flights. I would presume that these Tu160's transited mostly at high level and straight through the busy N.Atl OTS airspace. Was any co-ordination achieved or, was there an increased risk to civil traffic?

OAP

The Tu-160s have returned to Russia and they did air to air refuel. Radio enthusiasts noted at least two IL-78 Midas tankers along with the Tu-160s using HF last night. Looks like they refeulled them in the Barents area before they returned to Engels.

From

TASS: Military & Defense - Tu-160 bombers return to home airfield in Russia after visit to Venezuela

There was also the Bison tankers as A_Van posted in reply. They were retired in the mid 1990s. There was no IL-86 Camber tanker variant. In recent years they were looking at an IL-96 tanker but have apparently abandoned that idea.

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...gic-air-tanker

Unless they have changed suddenly in the last few weeks......no coordination what so ever. I' ve never heard of ANY Russian MIL aircraft coming around the North Cape for the Atlantic that is ever coordinated with ATC.