Moscow has placed an order for new, highly upgraded MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters. But they actually might not be new at all. The planned acquisition of the twin-tail, twin-engine MiG-29SMTs is a window into bizarre and possibly suspect Kremlin practices that could boost Russian air power … or undermine it.

Time was when foreigners referred to almost any Soviet- or Russian-built jet fighter as a “MiG.” While other design bureaus may have been making fighters for the Eastern bloc and its allies, the products of the company named for Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich were the most prolific.

The ubiquity of the plane-maker was a reflection of both the popularity of the MiG jets and the official favor the communist regime afforded the company.

How times have changed. Since the demise of the Soviet empire, the rival Sukhoi company has been the preeminent supplier of Russian fighters, for home and foreign use.

MiG’s fortunes, meanwhile, tell a sad story of botched export campaigns, high-profile technical issues, embargoes and a failure to capture any of the meager pickings on offer from Moscow’s Defense Ministry. Time and again, promising—and arguably more capable—MiG designs have been axed in favor of keeping Sukhoi’s production lines busy.

In recent years, things have begun to pick up for the Russian air force, and the Kremlin is once again ordering badly-needed new fighters. But from Sukhoi, not from MiG. The Moscow-based firm has muddled along with a handful of export orders and modest upgrades for foreign fleets.

Chief among these have been development of the modernized MiG-29UPG fighter for the Indian air force and a carrier-based MiG-29K for the Indian navy.

The success of the MiG-29K for the Indian navy’s much-delayed carrier Vikramaditya in turn prompted the Russian navy to order the same model for its own carrier air wing. And now, as Vladimir Putin’s Russia begins to flex its muscles, the Russian air force is finally ordering MiGs again. Just like in the good old days of the Cold War.

But the story behind the MiGs on order is a complex one. As with so many things in Russia, all might not be what it seems.