Despite crippling sanctions against the Russian Federation, Aeroflot Russian Airlines just purchased eight Airbus A330-300 jets. How was this even possible? The answer is an exception which seeks to avoid an even greater harm.
Aeroflot Just Purchased Eight A330-300 Jets
Aircraft lessors were caught in a terrible position when Russia invaded Ukraine, leaving over 400 leased jets in a state of limbo as sanctions compelled Russian airliners to return leased jets and the airlines responded by keeping them. Moscow even went so far as to bless the theft of these aircraft by allowing them to be re-registered within Russia, a bid meant to ensure each aircraft kept its airworthiness certificates.
- King Vlad Annexes A Fleet of Stolen Jets Into The Arms Of Mother Russia
- Russian Airlines Decide To Just Keep Leased Aircraft…
- The Problems For Russian Airlines Are Just Beginning
Without adequate maintenance records, these aircraft will become lemons even if they are returned after the war is over and sanctions against Russian airlines are dropped. That leaves aircraft lessors with two options: hope that the airlines holding their aircraft will eventually pay up or start an insurance claim, which could be litigated for years (for the latter, an recently-open claim by Dublin-based AerCap for 100 aircraft has exceeded $3.5 billion).
In a surprising move, Aeroflot purchased eight Airbus A300-300 jets “as part of the fulfillment of contractual obligations.”
But wait. Don’t the sanctions against Russia prohibit the acquisition of heavy equipment like commercial airliners? While true for new aircraft purchases, an exception in the European Union sanctions against Russia allows Russian airlines to purchase leased aircraft when the lease ends. The exception seeks to shield aircraft lessors from even greater harm by incentivizing Russian airlines to pay off their lease obligations and maintain airworthiness certificates for their aircraft (the transaction must be “strictly necessary to ensure lease re-payments”).
It is not clear which aircraft leasing company was the beneficiary of this deal, but Aeroflot has 12 A330-300 jets which it leases from Vistavia and Aviasky, both Irish companies.
CONCLUSION
Aeroflot just purchased eight A330 jets from an Irish aircraft leasing company, a move that is permitted under a narrow exception to the European Union sanctions against Russia. The deal represents the tenuous position not just for aircraft lessors, but for Russian airlines which seek to balance crippling sanctions and flights bans with contractual obligations.
image: Fedor Leukhin
Patton was so right about the Neanderthal Russians.
The corrupt western politicians sanctioned russian oligarchs only after the ukraine invasion. They were very happy to allow the corruption to go on as a matter of normal business before that.
Not to say anything about all the white Republican males that were busy selling our country to the Russians for some money or a chance to bang maria butina. Western countries are just as corrupt as Russia, the corruption is just well hidden in plain sight.
“Not to say anything about all the white Republican males that were busy selling our country to the Russians”
One reason why there are so many white males in the Republican party is that the Democrats engage in white male bashing and drive them there. I came from a Union family, but voted for Reagan. Self-hating Democrat white males are “Uncle Toms” IMO.
Next, Hillary Clinton and Obama largely pandered to Russia including Hillary’s infamous “reset” button gaffe and Obama saying off-mic to Medvedev he was going to cater to Putin after the 2012 elections. Plenty of cushy deals were cut with Russia in those days too.
Well we wouldn’t want the sanctions to inadvertently have a financial impact on us. Which is why most sanctions most of the time are loophole filled.
Still wondering though why we sanction Russia for trying to occupy Ukraine but not Morocco for occupying Western Sahara, or Saudi Arabia (and ourselves and the UK by extension) for Yemen, or Israel for Palestine, etc. Why are some occupations okay and others not? Is it because Russia is the BIG BAD? Or is it because in Ukraine the occupied people are white? Or is it because Ukraine is geopolitically closer to us so we care more? Or are we just random in our outrage depending on whatever else we’ve got going on at the time?
White democrat males such as Hunter were also grifting the Ukrainians, as was “the Big Guy.” The corruption is certainly not limited to Republicans.