Stilling the Rattling Sabers

On 27 June 2023, an Ilyushin Il-96-300 aircraft belonging to the special flight detachment of Aeroflot subsidiary Rossiya Airlines landed at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD). Before the day was out, the aircraft repositioned to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) for reasons as-of-yet unknown.

According to TASS, Russia’s state-owned news-agency, the 2007-vintage Il-96, registration RA-96018, traveled to the U.S. for purpose of retrieving a number of Russian diplomats from Washington D.C. and returning such to Moscow.

Speaking to the subject of the Il-96 and the reasons underlying its visit to the U.S., Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova set forth: "A number of media resources have made a fuss about a Russian flight heading to the United States. There is no sensation. It will bring home Russian diplomats who have been ordered by the U.S. authorities to leave the country due to the end of a three-year stay."

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller corroborated Zakharova’s assertions, stating: "I'm not going to speak to the exact numbers. I'll let the Russian Federation decide whether they want to speak to the number of what are, of course, their diplomats. I'd say diplomatic personnel routinely rotate in and out of assignments. That's what happened here."

The Il-96 and its ostensible load of Russian diplomats is slated to depart JFK for Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport (VKO) at 15:05 EDT on Thursday, 29 June.

The Il-96’s arrival in the U.S. belies travel and airspace prohibitions inherent the broader sanctions levied against Russia by Western nations in the wake of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Subject sanctions expressly forbid Russian-registered and Russian-affiliated aircraft from entering the airspaces of most Western countries—the U.S. Canada, the European Union, and Australia in particular.

Addressing the discontinuity, Miller alleged: "The U.S. Government allowed the Russian government to send a charter flight to the United States to transport to Russia those Russian diplomats whose assignments have ended. And I'll say we maintain strict reciprocity with Russia regarding special transport missions for diplomatic personnel and cargo, and we are maintaining diplomatic courtesies, such as this, for the Russian diplomatic mission."

Miller stated, also, that "in exchange for granting these courtesies," the U.S. federal government expects "Russia to maintain open transport for our diplomats and cargo to our embassy in Moscow."

FMI: www.state.gov