Some officials from Russian civil aviation agency watchdog 'Rosaviatsia' have been accused of de-registering aircraft that were later used by the Ukrainian military, reported Izvestia Monday, citing anonymous law enforcement and Transportation Ministry sources.
Ministry of Transport specify that the reason for initiating the cases was the inspection of the activities of the Federal Air Transport Agency for the state registration of civil aircraft and the maintenance of the relevant register, conducted by the ministry in July last year.
A Transport Ministry inspection in July 2023 revealed that 59 planes and helicopters had been illegally removed from Russia’s civil aircraft register between March 2022 and June 2023, according to the publication.
Izvestia said 36 of the aircraft had been sold abroad, eight of which ended up in countries deemed “unfriendly” by Russia.
Three Mi-8 transport helicopters were allegedly used by Kyiv in its ongoing defense against invading Russian forces, according to one of the publication's sources, while an Il-76 transport plane had made cargo deliveries.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) pressed criminal charges against three Rosaviatsia officials.
The first charge of negligence carries a maximum punishment of three months in jail, while the second charge of abuse of power is punishable by up to seven years in prison.
On February 7, the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized documents in the offices of the acting head of the Flight Safety Inspection Department, Kristina Byvalina, the deputy head of the department for state registration of civil aircraft, rights and transactions with them, Pyotr Kozyrev, as well as Byvalina's former deputy, Anna Zhiltsova, who was fired from the agency in June 2023.
Izvestia’s sources claimed the aircraft de-registration scandal led to the dismissal of former Rosaviatsia chief Alexander Neradko in September. Neradko was in the agency for 14 years and could face criminal prosecution.
After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States, the European Union and a number of other countries announced the closure of the skies to Russian aircraft; Airbus and Boeing stopped servicing aircraft of Russian companies and supplying spare parts to Russia; Some companies providing aircraft for leasing have also refused to work with Russian carriers.
After this, the Federal Air Transport Agency recommended that Russian airlines suspend all cargo and passenger flights abroad due to “the high risk of detention or arrest of aircraft of Russian airlines abroad.”
Russia also seized $10 billion worth of aircraft leased from Western companies and limited flights to so-called “friendly countries" to avoid the planes from being impounded.
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