The aim is to “impose additional costs on Russia for its foreign aggression and internal repression.” This is how the US Department of Defense wrote in announcing new sanctions against a total of more than 280 individuals and organizations in Russia and other countries, which it issued on May 1.

The ministry also explicitly mentions Aeroflot’s low-cost subsidiary Pobeda. The airline is already subject to sanctions, but the USA is now accusing it of circumventing them.

Since March 2023, Pobeda has been on the Commerce Ministry’s export violations list and is therefore “heavily dependent on sanctions evasion and procurement networks,” the Foreign Ministry writes.

In 2023, the airline purchased spare parts of American origin worth more than one million dollars – including from four named companies: ATS Heavy Equipment

“In addition, as recently as January 2024, Pobeda was acting as a known recipient for the transportation of aircraft parts from India to Russia through its continued cooperation with the US-sanctioned company Mahan Air,” the State Department writes.

The Iranian airline has been sanctioned for several years because of its proximity to the Revolutionary Guards. Mahan Air also circumvents sanctions – for example, when it indirectly procured Airbus A340s that once flew for Turkish Airlines.

In the statement from the US State Department, it certainly sounds as if Pobeda did not only purchase spare parts that it needs for its fleet, which consists of around 40 Boeing 737-800s.

“Pobeda’s continued violations of export controls and support of sanctions evasion networks have supported Russia’s continued illegal efforts to expropriate aircraft and aircraft parts of Western origin,” the ministry writes.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions, the Russian aviation industry has sourced spare parts for its Western aircraft from China, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and most recently Gabon – and even from the USA itself.

This seems to be working. While Pobeda announced in March 2022 that it would temporarily reduce its active fleet from 41 to 25 aircraft due to a lack of spare parts, the aviation data portal CH Aviation currently lists 42 active Boeing 737-800s as its fleet.

The original of this article “Russian budget airline circumvents sanctions with a trick, now the USA is catching on” comes from aeroTelegraph.