[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
The nationwide protests across Iran continue without letup, and the Supreme Leader may feel even more uneasy today, having seen with what ease the hated Americans removed Nicolás Maduro from his Caracas office to a New York jail, which came just after Donald Trump warned the embattled regime in Tehran not to kill protesters. Otherwise, Trump said, he was prepared to attack Iran yet again.
More on the Supreme Leader’s plans to escape to Russia if the protests cannot be suppressed can be found here: “Iran’s Khamenei has escape plan to flee to Moscow if regime falls amid protests – report,” by Tobias Holcman, Jerusalem Post, January 5, 2026:
The supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reportedly has an “escape plan” that involves fleeing to Russia if the current nationwide protests continue to intensify, British newspaper The Times reported on Sunday.
The plan, called “Plan B” by the British report, would include 86-year-old Khamenei and 20 close people, including family and aides.
It will also involve a way of taking his vast asset network, which, according to a 2013 Reuters investigation cited by The Times, is valued at about $95 billion, and includes the Setad organization, one of the most powerful organizations in Iran, and the Ayatollah’s system of semi-state charitable foundations known for their financial obfuscation.
If Khamenei absconds to Moscow with tens of billions of dollars that he and his closest cronies have taken from the Iranian treasury, a new regime in Iran should be able to demand that the Russians locate the funds — Russian President Vladimir Putin will have ways to extract such information from his new guest, the no-longer Supreme Leader — and hand them over to the new Iranian government. Or Putin may do nothing, and let Khamenei, like Bashar Assad, keep whatever loot he manages to transfer to Russia.
“The ‘plan B’ is for Khamenei and his very close circle of associates and family, including his son and nominated heir apparent, Mojtaba,” The Times said, citing intelligence sources.
The report also mentioned that, according to former Israeli intelligence official Beni Sabti, Khamenei would leave for Russia as “there is no other place for him.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with the families of Iranians who died during the 12-Day War between Israel and Iran, January 3, 2026. (credit: KHAMENEI.IR)
Khamenei had previously assured that he “admires Putin, while the Iranian culture is more similar to the Russian culture,” the report noted.
How is Iranian culture similar to Russian culture? A penchant for supreme leaders, a population used to submitting to dictators, the mind-forged manacles of an ideology — Islam in Iran, Communism in Russia — that has led to much misery.
So pack your bags, Supreme Leader, just in case, as those protests across Iran show no signs of stopping. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is trying to calm things down by telling the security forces to use brute force sparingly, but it’s a little late for that; police batons have split open too many protesters’ heads for things to calm down. Alert your family and closest cronies to transfer as much of their money as they can right now to Sberbank — its headquarters are located at 19 Vavilova Street, Moscow, 117997. Bank officials are standing by. As Fats Waller said so memorably, one never knows, do one?
