Visiting Ben Gurion
On July 19, a Bombardier Global 6000 aircraft landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (the approximate cost of an airliner of this class is about $60 million). He did not stay there for long – only three days, after which he went to French Marseille. But during this time, a chic business jet was captured in a photo, which was subsequently posted on a specialized website. A cursory glance is enough to remember this liner for a long time – it looks really chic. It is distinguished from other jets by its unusual golden color, and one can only imagine what luxury reigns inside.
On the tail of the Bombardier Global 6000 is its tail number – &LE. Judging by aviation registries, he has nothing to do with Russia – the owner of the liner is registered in the United States.
But this is if you do not study the archival data of the aircraft. It follows from them that Bombardier was bought out in October 2021.
And until then, he had a completely different number – M-YOIL. The Russian business elite and investigative journalists are well aware of the combination of these letters. For five whole years, a plane with such a tail number belonged to the Russian company Rosneft, and none other than Igor Sechin.
Dear bird
In September 2016, an elite Bombardier hit the frame at Pulkovo Airport. At that moment, the liner was assigned to Nicosia: the aircraft was acquired by Shelf Support Shiphold Limited (SSSL), registered in Cyprus. According to the documents that were then at the disposal of Sobesednik, the director of the company was Alexander Sokolov, who also headed the financial department of Rosneft.
True, against the background of this aircraft, not Sokolov was regularly seen at all, but Igor Sechin himself. For example, in 2018, photojournalists captured Sechin boarding a Bombardier 6000 with tail number M-YOIL. It happened in Palma de Mallorca, where Reuters correspondents were waiting for the head of Rosneft. Subsequently, the journalists said that from mid-July to the end of August 2018, an aircraft with tail number M-YOIL flew six times to Palma de Mallorca.
One of the possible options for the cabin of the Bombardier Global 6000During this period, the liner spent 27 days in Mallorca and near the island. But not only Sechin used it. On July 15, when the Rosneft plane landed in Palma de Mallorca, Anita Tsoi posted a message on her Instagram * that her family had begun a long-awaited vacation. And then she posted a photo geotagged Mallorca, which depicted her, her 26-year-old son and husband Sergei Tsoi, a top manager of Rosneft. A day later, the Rosneft plane returned to Moscow, and Anita posted a photo geotagged Moscow. And she wrote: “Vacation came to an end.”
Everything would be fine, but the code of business and corporate ethics of Rosneft then and now says: “We do not use the property and assets of the company for other purposes, as well as for personal purposes or for personal gain.” But if you really want, then, as they say, you can?
Covid is not a hindrance
In the spring of 2020, the state borders of Russia were almost completely closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of Russians were deprived of the opportunity to travel, including by air. The ban on flights from Russia did not apply only to cargo, postal, sanitary and humanitarian transportation. And on the mighty of this world.
According to the ADS-B Exchange aircraft tracking service, a Bombardier Global 6000 tail number M-YOIL visited Austria almost every month. So, from May 4 to May 6, 2020, the plane was at the airport in the Austrian city of Fischamend. In June, October and December Bombardier flew to Vienna. From September 10 to 13, the Rosneft plane was in Geneva, and celebrated the New Year already in Vienna.
The Bombardier Global 6000 began the first working week of 2021 with a flight to the United Arab Emirates. Then he flew to India.
However, sooner or later everything ends.
No longer Rosneft
In October 2021, the Bombardier Global 6000 changed hands. And the biggest surprise is that the American company TVPX Aircraft Solutions Inc (Trustee) has become the new owner of the aircraft. At the same time, the liner changed its tail number – from M-YOIL to &LE. The deal was not hindered by US restrictive sanctions imposed against Igor Sechin.
Restrictions were introduced back in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea. Commenting on the imposition of sanctions, US representatives noted that direct business contacts with Sechin as a private individual are now prohibited for American citizens. But despite this, the American company was able to buy an expensive business jet.
However, from a legal point of view, everything looks legal: after all, an offshore company owned the plane. If you do not know that this is a “daughter” of Rosneft, then there is nothing to worry about. Only a deaf-blind-mute person who does not know how to use the Internet can not know about this. After all, one has only to drive in the tail number of M-YOIL in the search engines, as soon as you recognize its owner. That is, the Americans themselves violated their own sanctions? Who the new owner is is unknown.
Now, as follows from the flights, the board is rented out. In 2022 alone, the liner made more than 50 flights: Miami, Montreal, London, Marseille, Malta, Antalya. Bombardier made its last flight on September 25 from Teterboro to Montreal. After that, &LE did not fly anywhere else (or began to turn off the beacons).
Silenced forever
As the “Interlocutor” noted, many “illuminated” aircraft of the Russian elite stopped flying not only around the world, but also within the country. For example, the board of the Bombardier Global Express of the head of VTB Andrey Kostin with the number T7-SSM has not moved for a year (at the same time, he did not change jurisdiction and was not sanctioned by the West).
The same thing happened with the Bombardier BD-700 with tail number M-MAVP, which, according to media reports, belongs to the structures of businessman Arkady Rotenberg. In March 2022, he ended up in Abu Dhabi and since then has not shown signs of life (he also did not change jurisdiction and numbers).
