“Flights by Influential Russians in February-March 2020.” The light blue plane (M-YOIL) belongs to Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin; the orange plane (LX-MOW), to VEB.RF CEO Igor Shuvalov; the green plane (VQ-VBQ), to Ramzan Kadyrov; the purple plane (P4-LIG), to Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov; and the yellow plane (M-SKSM), to Svetlana Medvedeva, wife of former Russian president and prime minister Sergei Medvedev. Graphic courtesy of MBKh Media

High-Flying VIPs: How Putin’s Inner Circle Flew to Europe Without Fear of the Coronavirus
Andrei Saveliev
MBKh Media
March 26, 2020

The coronavirus arrived in Europe on January 24, when the first cases were reported in France. At the time, Russian authorities were in no hurry to take any measures. Moreover, Vladimir Putin’s inner circle continued to fly abroad. MBKh Media has compiled a map of international flights taken in February and March by several people close to the Russian head of state.

The most flights of all were made by a plane belonging to Svetlana Medvedeva, the wife of the former primer minister; the plane’s registration number is M-SKSM, and it used to belong to VTB Bank. Medvedeva started her month by flying from Nuremberg to Moscow on February 2. After that, she visited Innsbruck three times, Geneva twice, and Zurich, Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Dubai, Munich, Riga, and the French resort of Aix-Les-Bains once each. The last flight took place on March 9, when Medvedeva’s plane returned from Paris via Riga to Moscow.

In second place for number of flights is the plane of Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov, registration number P4-LIG. He made his first flight in February on the seventh from Basel to Madrid. He then visited Barcelona four times, Venice and Seville twice, and Geneva, Vienna, Seattle, Wichita, and Chicago once each. Chemezov completed his travels on March 7 with a flight from Chicago to Moscow.

In third place is the plane of VEB.RF chair and former first Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, registration number LX-MOW. He made his first February flight from Moscow to London on the seventh. After that, he visited Tallinn, Riga, Dubai, Birmingham, Farnborough, Salzburg, and London again. The last flight was made on March 14, when the plane returned from Salzburg to Moscow.

Long-distance flights were also made by the plane of the head of another state-owned company, Igor Sechin. Thus, on February 4, his plane, registration number M-YOIL, made a flight from Moscow to New Delhi. The next day, the plane went straight from the Indian capital to Rome. In the following days, the aircraft visited Stavanger, London, Minsk, and Malta. The last flight is dated March 8: the plane returned from the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, where it stayed for four days.

Also, a plane belonging to Chechnya head Ramzan Kadyrov, registration number VQ-BVQ, flew during this period. Thus, on February 14, the plane returned from Basel to Grozny. According to tracking services, the plane had been in Switzerland since January 20. On February 26, the aircraft flew to Paris and back. It was on this day that the French capital hosted a show by fashion house Firdaws, run by Kadyrov’s daughter Aishat.

The airplanes of Medvedeva, Chemezov, Shuvalov, Sechin, and Kadyrov are registered in the Isle of Man, Aruba, Luxembourg, the Isle of Man, and Barbados, respectively. Translated by the Russian Reader