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Iran’s Supreme Leader Has a Moscow Escape Plan if Protests Topple the Regime
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Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has prepared a contingency plan to flee the country if mass unrest and protests threaten the survival of the Islamic Republic, with Moscow identified as his intended destination, The Times reported on January 5.
According to the report, the 86-year-old cleric would leave Tehran accompanied by a small inner circle of no more than 20 people, including close aides and family members, should he determine that Iran’s military and security forces—tasked with suppressing unrest—begin to defect, refuse orders, or lose control of the situation.
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“Plan B is designed for Khamenei and his very closest circle of allies and family, including his son and designated heir Mojtaba,” a Western intelligence source told the British newspaper.
The plan reportedly envisions a rapid evacuation once signs emerge that the regime can no longer rely on its coercive institutions to maintain power.
BREAKING: Protests against the Islamic Republic are engulfing nearly every city in Iran. pic.twitter.com/2WldQ8rBTL
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 4, 2026
Former Israeli intelligence officer Benny Sabti, who fled Iran eight years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and later served for decades in Israeli intelligence, told the paper that Moscow represents the only viable refuge.
“Khamenei runs to Moscow because there is nowhere else for him to go,” Sabti said.
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According to The Times, the escape plan was shaped in part by the recent collapse of the Syrian regime. In December 2024, Syria’s longtime ruler, Bashar al-Assad, fled Damascus for Moscow ahead of an opposition advance on the capital, where he reunited with his family under Russian protection.
The report suggests Iranian leadership closely studied that episode as a precedent for how Moscow could serve as a last-resort sanctuary for embattled authoritarian allies.
Earlier, reports emerged that Russian intelligence operatives reportedly convinced former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to leave the country, warning him that he was on the verge of losing the war.
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