Key Points and Summary – In the late 1990s, Washington quietly bought Moldova’s surplus MiG-29s not to fly them, but to keep them out of Iran’s hands. -The jets offered Tehran a ready-made platform to ...

Key Points and Summary - After the Soviet collapse, advanced weapons were stranded across new states. In 1997 the United States quietly bought 21 Moldovan MiG-29s—fourteen MiG-29Cs, six MiG-29As, and ...