Chemezov - to Basel, Sechin - to Vienna: where the heads of state corporations fly to a pandemic

Russian elites ignore the ban on international flights.
29.06.2020
Origin source
Austria, Israel, Cyprus, Finland - this is an incomplete list of countries that in recent months visited the planes of heads of state corporations and other representatives of power circles. And if at other times such flights would have seemed quite common, albeit prohibitively expensive, then during the coronavirus pandemic, when the government banned the Russians from all international flights, they look like a mockery. Who, on what and where flew away from the epidemic in Russia is in the PASMI review.

Since the end of March, Russia has completely shut down international air traffic - regular and charter passenger flights were banned. This has become a measure against the spread of coronavirus. As Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov recently stated, even now, three months later, the authorities do not know when they can lift the restrictions. “The situation will allow - and we will open,” said a senior official.

With a general ban, an exception was made only for export flights for Russians who ended up abroad, as well as for foreigners who needed to be returned from Russia to their homeland.

But there is another “flight” exception, which is not widely reported in the media. This exception applies to private flights of individual business jets that transport elite representatives - top managers of state corporations and billionaires close to power.

Baltic states of Rothenberg

So, on April 10, just two weeks after the introduction of a total ban on foreign flights, a Bombardier BD-700 aircraft with tail number M-MAVP flew from Moscow to Riga. This board belongs to Arkady Rotenberg. At the Riga airport, he spent about half an hour, and then flew back.

Then the same plane made three flights from Moscow to St. Petersburg and back, and the last flight was carried out on May 6 - the board returned from Pulkovo to Vnukovo. Last year, Kommersant reported on the ownership of this business jet to Rotenberg.

Usmanov cheese and beer

The plane of another famous billionaire Alisher Usmanov has been abroad for the past few months. Since March 3, it has been parked at the Swiss-French airport, 7 km from the city of Basel (Switzerland). At the end of May, the billionaire’s business jet moved from Basel to German Munich. “From hospitable Basel to no less hospitable Munich, where there is less cheese, but there is beer, Froill and sausages,” the Other Roldugin television channel said.

At the same time, Usmanov himself assured everyone that he was self-insulated in Uzbekistan. There is no evidence of this, except for the words of the businessman himself.

As The Bell reported, many Russian Forbes billionaires, after declaring a pandemic and imposing a ban on international communications with the Russian Federation, put their planes on the other side of the border, including in Basel, whose airport is a major hub for parking and maintenance of business jets. Among them, the owner of Renova Viktor Vekselberg, the founder of AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov, former presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov and others.

Finnish sauna Skocha

In Basel, the Airbus A319 aircraft with tail number P4-MGU, which belongs to the family of the State Duma deputy Andrei Skoch, also “lit up”. This board has left Russia three times in recent months. He flew to Switzerland on April 4, returning back to Vnukovo on April 18. On May 15, the jet went to Helsinki (Finland). On June 14, he repeated his route Moscow - Helsinki.
Representatives of the State Duma deputy could not explain where the parliamentarian could fly during the operation of the general regime of self-isolation.

Last year, journalist Tina Kandelaki announced that co-owner of USM Holdings Andrei Skoch flies on an Airbus A319 business jet worth $ 71 million. She also noted that the deputy presented another plane to his wife - Airbus A320 with “icons on board”.

Chemezov against sanctions

Also, the head of Rostec Sergei Chemezov “drove” his plane to Basel. Attributed to him Boeing 737-700 with tail number P4-LIG flew to Switzerland on May 18.

The media revealed the connection between the head of the state corporation and the aforementioned business jet in 2018. At the same time, Rostec says that Chemezov cannot visit European countries because of sanctions, and the plane never belonged to his family. The aircraft is operated by Orion-X, a private aircraft service company. A livery of Rosoboronexport, which is part of Rostec, is applied on its board.

Vienna repair Sechin

In addition to Basel Airport, there are other international airports in Europe that provide maintenance services for private jets. One of them is located in Austria, near Vienna. Since the beginning of May, the Bombardier Global 6000 has been repeatedly seen here with tail number M-YOIL. This aircraft is in operation with an offshore company from Singapore, which is controlled by Rosneft.
 
According to Reuters, the aircraft personally serves the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin and his friends. Journalists analyzed the flights of corporate aircraft of the state-owned company and found that they flew exactly to those elite resorts where Sechin himself and people close to him were resting. The agency also published a photo of how the head of Rosneft is boarding a Bombardier Global 6000 aircraft.

The first quarantine flight of the Sechin Business Jet was recorded on May 4, then the flight departed along the same route on June 15, and a week later the plane flew to Munich. And if flights to Vienna can be explained by the need for maintenance, although the frequency of “technical flights” is doubtful, then the reason for the flight to Munich is unknown.

Suitcases of Shuvalov

Following the example of Sechin, Austria also preferred Switzerland to the former Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, the current head of the state-owned VEB Bank Igor Shuvalov. On May 16, a Gulfstream G650 aircraft with tail number LX-MOW, which supposedly belongs to Shuvalov, flew to Salzburg, Austria. Before that, he managed to fly to Finland, in April, when the ban on international flights was already in force. On April 20, a business jet landed at Helsinki Airport - a month later, Andrey Skoch’s plane will be there.

Shuvalov himself did not explain where his plane flew during the pandemic, avoiding a direct answer to the question. At the same time, he noted that he himself and his family were in Moscow all the time.

The Austrian authorities, who reported on the maintenance of the “Sechin plane”, explained the reason for the visit of the Shuvalov plane by the fence of “suitcases and other things” for people who have Austrian real estate.

But the Shuvalov business jet did not stop at April and May flights - at the beginning of June he flew to Israel, where he had been several times before, and the other day he again went to Helsinki, from where he almost immediately flew to the already beloved Salzburg. This can be explained by the fact that in Austria, the Shuvalov family owns an estate with a house with an area of ​​4 thousand square meters. meters. As The Bell previously reported, Salzburg and Tel Aviv are the most popular routes for this business jet.

Versatile Medvedev

More exotic routes are on the Bombardier Global 5000 aircraft with tail number M-SKSM. According to the Anti-Corruption Fund, it is used by the wife of the former Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, Svetlana Medvedev. She got a personal business jet from the generosity of VTB State Bank and its head Andrei Kostin.

A plane worth about 3.5 billion rubles flew to Cyprus at the beginning of June, and on June 24 already departed from Vnukovo to Frankfurt Airport. The next day, the business jet Medvedeva again went to Larnaca, and earlier he was noticed when flying to Latvia.

A representative of the Medvedev family previously stated that the wife of the former head of state flies for money from the family budget. But so far no one has undertaken to explain why and by what right Medvedeva’s plane makes international flights during a pandemic.

Aeroflot Airplanes

However, as it turned out, you can fly abroad during the quarantine period without having a personal business jet, although it is difficult to call such flights low-cost.

It turns out that all June Aeroflot Airlines carries passengers abroad, issuing flights as cargo. You can fly from Moscow to Frankfurt, Paris, London, New York, Seoul and Tel Aviv. Recently, Nice, Barcelona and Rome have been added to this list.

Tickets are many times more expensive than before the ban on international air travel, but are popular the number of flights is growing, as well as the capacity of the used liners.

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