The United States government has expanded its list of sanctions against the Russian aviation industry by designating lessor GTLK - State Transport Leasing and its foreign subsidiaries, while identifying more aircraft being operated in Russia in apparent violation of its sanctions.
Besides the main Moscow-registered, state-owned GTLK unit, the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has now also designated Hong Kong-based GTLK Asia Limited, Dublin-based GTLK Europe Capital DAC and GTLK Europe DAC, and Dubai-based GTLK Middle East Free Zone Company. The lessor was sanctioned by the European Union in April 2022, but the US has so far not individually designated it.
The sanctions mean it is now illegal for any US entity to conduct business with GTLK or any of its designated subsidiaries without prior authorisation.
Meanwhile, the United States Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has updated its list of aircraft suspected of violating US export sanctions. In practice, the list includes expropriated aircraft which continue to be operated by Russian and Belarusian operators even after lessors terminated their contracts due to sanctions. It has now added 25 aircraft, including five airlines which were not previously listed. The new operators on the list include:
- Alrosa Aviakompania (6R, Mirnyj):
- B737-800 EI-FCH/RA-73266 (msn 32576),
- iFly Airlines (F7, Moscow Vnukovo):
- A330-300s EI-GOT/RA-73685 (msn 1021), EI-GPJ/RA-73686 (msn 965), and EI-GWF/RA-73684 (msn 1265),
- Red Wings Airlines (WZ, Moscow Domodedovo):
- A321-200s VP-BVT (msn 2107) and VP-BVW (msn 1950),
- Ural Airlines (U6, Ekaterinburg):
- A320-200s VP-BDL/RA-73819 (msn 2343), VQ-BGI/RA-73817 (msn 5055), and VQ-BGJ/RA-73818 (msn 2376), and
- A321-200s VP-BBH/RA-73842 (msn 2862), VP-BSW/RA-73798 (msn 7206), VP-BSY/RA-73797 (msn 7375), VQ-BGX/RA-73644 (msn 1941), and VQ-BGY/RA-73799 (msn 2105), and
- Yamal Airlines (YC, Salekhard):
- A320-200 VP-BCN/RA-73691 (msn 1993) and
- A321-200s VQ-BSM/RA-73310 (msn 1967) and VQ-BSQ/RA-73689 (msn 1956).
The BIS also added four aircraft operated by Nordwind Airlines (two A321-200s, one A330-300, and one B777-300(ER)), one B737-800 operated by Pobeda, two A320-200Ns and four A321-200Ns operated by S7 Airlines, and one B737-500 operated by UTair. The list now numbers 183 aircraft - 181 commercial aircraft and two business jets owned by oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Sanctions have been imposed on Russia in response to its military aggression on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, cutting Russian aviation industry nearly entirely from the EU and the US.
