The Russian business aviation industry is on the verge of collapse due to the EU and U.S. closing their airspace to all aircraft owned by Russians in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to industry analysts, this will lead to the decline of business aviation traffic in Russia by almost 85 percent and force business jets owned or controlled by Russian interests to switch to Asian and domestic routes. The move also threatens a wave of bankruptcies of Russian business aircraft charter operators and FBOs.
Amid the ever-growing threat of detentions of Russian-owned business jets by Western authorities, these owners are considering reregistering their aircraft from Western jurisdictions to offshore registries and “friendly” states such as Montenegro. While the latest sanctions apply to all Russian-owned or -controlled aircraft, regardless of where they are registered, it is unclear how authorities will determine aircraft ownership given the widespread use of anonymous shell companies.
Meanwhile, Russian business jet owners could soon see bans on repairs and insurance of their aircraft, as well as the supply of parts and components. These measures have already been implemented for Russian-owned airliners and could be extended to the business aviation sector.
Experts predict that the already approved sanctions will all but cut off business jet sales in Russia, which has historically been one of the largest business aircraft markets in Europe.
Putin lashes out at cabinet over Russian airline collapse
Russian president Vladimir Putin gave his transport minister a public reprimand on Wednesday after airline VIM Avia said it needed state support to continue operating and carry thousands of passengers stranded abroad. Highlight text Mr Putin told Maxim Sokolov, the minister, and deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich that he held them responsible for the airline’s collapse, which has seen investigators launch fraud charges against its owner. The airline, Russia’s tenth largest, asked for Rbs840m in state support on Tuesday in order to operate flights to repatriate 39,000 stranded passengers. Mr Sokolov said he saw no use in propping up the airline because it had essentially ceased all operations after failing to pay Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, its home base, for fuel. VIM Avia has between Rbs3bn and Rbs10bn in debt, affecting as many as 200,000 passengers who had bought tickets for upcoming flights, according to Russia’s tourism industry association. The head of Russia’s state tourism agency said on Wednesday that he believed VIM Avia’s owner, Rashid Mursekaev, had fled the country after he missed an emergency meeting and turned off his phone.
The U.S. Army’s V Corps will deploy the bulk of its headquarters to Europe to enhance command and control of ground forces as troops continue to deploy to the Continent in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
DJ; A few reasons why that ship is "in the region" (Mediterranean Sea);
-French pride, presidential elections
-Show of strenght...will be part of a larger group, could be interesting to see what kind of group...If this French ship is part of a group of south European ships-not mixing with US/UK vessels it may allready indicate a split in "western unity"...
"On February 23 at 21:00 Zelensky was given an ultimatum from the Kremlin, in which the President of Ukraine was given 5 hours to decide on the recognition of Crimea and the LDNR within its borders. We [Ukraine] reported this to the State Department and the British Embassy, to which we received a response to ignore the ultimatum."
About two hours after the ultimatum expired, Russia invaded Ukraine.
So ALL the death, destruction, and pain being caused by the ongoing hostilities is directly laid at the feet of the US State Department in Washington, DC, and the British Embassy in Kiev, who told Ukraine to "ignore" the ultimatum!
DJ The picture I have US/UK pushed Ukraine under the (Russian) bus).
DJ-Ukraine had no chance in this war. Why NATO has to keep expanding east ? Why is this question such a toboo...most politicians/media run away from...
This war would not even have started if Ukraine would not be close to NATO membership....
And yes-Russia started this war...as expected...I think Russia had other options...certainly in combination with China. Apart from energy Russia/China could put missiles on Cuba...A repeat of the 1962 Cuba crisis [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis ...in reaction to US missiles in Turkey, the Soviet Union did start putting missiles in Cuba...Kennedy did stop the crisis by getting the missiles out of Turkey...
One can speculate on why Russia did not go that road....
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
China Cannot Condone Russia’s Aggression in Ukraine
China’s attitude toward the Ukraine war stems from functional calculations, diplomatic and military bonds with Kyiv, strategic considerations, and normative reflection.
On the phone call between China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmyro Kuleba on March 1, Wang expressed his profound regrets on the current conflict and paid particular attention to the civilian casualties. He also stated that China would be willing to facilitate negotiations between both sides for a ceasefire. At the United Nations General Assembly Emergency Special Session one day before, Chinese Ambassador to the U.N. Zhang Jun suggested that the rapidly unfolding situation in Ukraine was something China “does not wish to see and which is not in the interest of any party.”
The two statements could be seen as early signs of China taking a less ambiguous position on the ongoing crisis, which came as a shock for Beijing, according to some observers. Yet, both events follow China’s abstention from the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2623 condemning Russia’s military actions.
Is China slowly shifting attitudes toward the crisis? Will its position become less and less enigmatic as the war develops? Although this remains to be seen, there are several reasons for China to hold back from embracing the Kremlin’s aggression within a sovereign Ukraine, including functional calculations, diplomatic and military bond with Kyiv, strategic considerations, and normative reflection
It’s simply not true that China and Russia are friends. China and Russia don’t want friends. They want power, and territory. In 2014, Vladimir Putin saw his stock rise in Russia when he took Crimea fairly easily and decided he would give himself a boost by reclaiming the rest of Ukraine for Russia this year. What could go wrong? Turns out, everything.
His military is getting more decimated by the day, and even if he eventually does manage to topple Kyiv, how the hell is he going to hold onto it? The insurgency hasn’t even started, and Putin simply doesn’t have the resources or funding. With a collapsing economy, Russia is fast becoming a third-world nation that is angering his people and, more importantly, the elites he needs to stay in power.
China is just as shocked as everyone else in the world to see the mighty Russian military turn out to be an over-bloated, underfunded, poorly trained pool of corruption and incompetence. China would love to put Taiwan under its thumb, as it is currently trying to do in Hong Kong, but seeing the West completely unified and strengthened from this conflict has probably put any imminent plans on hold.
Everything you need to know about war crimes and how Putin could be prosecuted
(CNN)There is a loud and growing chorus of calls for the International Criminal Court to pursue Vladimir Putin. On Wednesday, the court said it would immediately proceed with an active investigation of possible war crimes following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The US Embassy in Kyiv said on Friday that Russia committed a war crime by attacking a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
"It is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant," the embassy said on its official Twitter feed. "Putin's shelling of Europe's largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further."
Russia's suspected use of cluster bombs and so-called vacuum bombs in dense areas with many civilians has also been described as a war crime.
"I want to be very clear about this, that Mr. Putin is a war criminal," former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday. "He has to sit behind the bars in International Criminal Court."
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