Could a purchase of Boeing aircraft somehow be part of a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine? That’s what the Russian government seems to be suggesting, which really shows you how rough the country’s aviation sector has become.
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Russia wants to go on a Boeing shopping spree
Bloomberg reports that the Russian government has approached the United States to request permission to purchase Boeing aircraft, as part of a ceasefire with Ukraine. This is intended to be part of a broader sanctions relief package that could come as part of any deal.
Here’s the other interesting angle to this — Russia has had around $280 billion in assets frozen since the start of the war, and Russia wants to use those assets to buy Boeing aircraft. For what it’s worth, US officials have stated that they’d only consider any concessions after a ceasefire has been reached, but of course I imagine that could evolve.
Several weeks ago, the Russian government asked President Trump to lift the ban on flights between the two countries, in order to start to restore relations. However, nothing has happened on that front either.
I imagine that Russia thinks that agreeing to buy Boeing aircraft could be viewed as a major positive for the United States, given the current mess that Boeing is in due to tariffs, including China banning domestic airlines from taking delivery of Boeing aircraft.
Russia’s aviation sector desperately needs help
Russia’s airline industry is currently a complete mess. Since the start of the war, Russia has been unable to take delivery of new Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Beyond that, many of the country’s existing planes have been seized, since they’re owned by foreign leasing companies.
Actually maintaining existing jets has proven challenging as well, since the country hasn’t had access to authentic parts for most Airbus and Boeing planes.
Despite the sanctions in place against Russia, we’ve seen dozens of planes smuggled into the country through other countries, which is a surprisingly common way for countries with trade restrictions to acquire planes.
It really is surprising that we haven’t seen more accidents in Russian aviation, given the poor condition of so many aircraft.
Russia has been trying to grow its domestic aircraft manufacturing capabilities, but obviously these programs haven’t proven to be particularly successful, which is why Russia desperately wants aircraft from other countries.
Bottom line
Russia is requesting the right to buy Boeing planes with frozen assets, as part of a ceasefire deal with Ukraine. Meanwhile the United States claims that economic relief will only be discussed after a ceasefire is reached. We’ll see how this plays out, especially since it follows a recent request from Russia to restore air service between the two countries.
Russia seems to be getting increasingly desperate on the aviation front, as the state of the country’s aviation system is a mess.
How do you see this Russia and Boeing situation playing out?
Don’t know why they don’t look at Comac for their single aisle needs.
I assume that what is now America's only friend in the world will get absolutely everything it wants, while continuing to bomb Ukrainian citizens with impunity. Why two people are allowed to continue causing so much global damage is my biggest question.
Dude. You are weak. Sorry. It’s all about history. It makes sense and the USA failed to manage this! Putin speech 2007 Munich! Red flag.
Dude. You are weak. Sorry. It’s all about history. It makes sense and the USA failed to manage this! Putin speech 2007 Munich! Red flag.
Trump is playing a long game. Dusty, you don’t understand. In the short term, Trump has brought back Americans from Russia’s horrendous prisons.
As for Russia’s request for frozen assets….NO !
They started this war and they can end it. Also,
after every war the losing side must pay reparations. Those frozen assets can bring just a little comfort to displaced Ukrainian families.
You can't seriously believe that Trump has the capacity to out-think and outmaneuver Putin? He's not smart, and he's advised by suckholes and sycophants. Putin makes a fool of him on a daily basis.
As they should.
Ukraine is and always has been Russia. The coup in 2014 and subsequent genocide against the those that resisted the CIA backed coup led to the war.
Russia should not be granted any release of frozen assets. It should first retreat in full from Ukrainian lands and pay reparations for the killing and damages it has done to people and property.
Rogues who violently try to take over other people's homes -- and/or the land on which the homes stood until recently -- must not be rewarded for their aggression, or they will continue to do the same again to the same people or others.
You western folk are scared. All is good with Russian commercial aviation. Nothing to see you hysterical people. No accidents due to Mx. calm the f down.
Then Russia should get by just fine without any release of frozen assets.
If you read a comment that you think is wrong, poorly reasoned, or just straight up offensive, stop and think, "Will responding to this comment change anything?"
Flame wars on comment sections help no one and I doubt highly that this comment section is going to transform into a net 3.0 version of the Algonquin Round Table wherein we solve the world's problems through reasoned discourse.
The flaming is all coming from Russian trolls.
Relex
I wonder how that move by Russia will go over with it's buddy China.
Certainly interesting times.
As for the title of this article, Russia wants a lot of things. They also want Ukraine. I want a Porsche. Where's my Porsche?
Gimme Bugati lol
Get an insurance quote for the Bugatti first, and you might opt for the Porsche ;-)
If you don't mind me asking, and this might be a dumb question: Can someone explain to me the difference in sanctions between Libya and Russia?
Apparently, Libyan Airlines has no issues getting parts, but Russia does... I'm confused, TIA
Maybe it is because Libya is not conducting a genocidal, ethnic cleansing war in someone else's country?
Nah, all of those frozen assets should be transferred to Ukraine as reparations at bare minimum. Russia launched this war in 2014, they are responsible for the mess they are in, and unless they are forced to acknowledge that they'll do it again. If Russia wants to buy Boeing jets, they can find other money to use.
But who am I kidding, the Grifter in Chief will give his buddy Putin whatever he wants and hang the Ukrainians out to dry.
And did you propose similar punishments on the USA and the American people with our invasions of multiple sovereign countries over the last 25 years? Sanctions on civil aviation (especially involving spare parts/maintenance) primarily harm uninvolved civilians just trying to live their lives.
You're also making a false equivalence. Afghanistan, and to an extent Iraq, were a result of the 9/11 terror attacks. Ukraine made no such attacks on Russia, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 because the new Ukrainian government following the Maidan revolution refused to be a Russian puppet. There's no comparison between Russia's behavior in Ukraine and the USA's in the Middle East.
And while I disagree with the nation-building Bush tried to do in the...
You're also making a false equivalence. Afghanistan, and to an extent Iraq, were a result of the 9/11 terror attacks. Ukraine made no such attacks on Russia, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 because the new Ukrainian government following the Maidan revolution refused to be a Russian puppet. There's no comparison between Russia's behavior in Ukraine and the USA's in the Middle East.
And while I disagree with the nation-building Bush tried to do in the Middle East and the 2003 invasion of Iraq specifically, what was the US supposed to do with Afghanistan do after the Taliban refused to shut down Al Qaeda training camps or hand over the masterminds behind 9/11? It speaks volumes that for the Afghanistan invasion most of NATO went in with us, compared to Iraq. And despite all that, Iraq is more stable and more secure today than it was under Saddam, and enjoys democratic elections instead of dictatorship. We spent not a little blood and a lot of time and treasure attempting to stabilize these places after we invaded, something Russia has NOT done in occupied Ukraine.
Did Afghanistan or Iraq attack the US? From what we were told, majority of the attackers were Saudi nationals. Unbelievable that even after more than 2 decades, people are hanging on to the belief that somehow Iraq was responsible for 9/11 attacks. We destroyed a country, killed hundreds of thousands innocent people for what?
I agree with criticism of the Iraq war, but the Taliban were absolutely sheltering Osama and his lieutenants in Afghanistan, so the war there was totally justified. If I was Dubya I would have nuked the entire country into a flat sheet of radioactive glass, so they actually got off quite easily by my reckoning.
I will concede that Afghanistan is probably not an apt comparison, although I still believe the intervention was wrong. But would love to understand how Iraq was responsible for 9/11.
It is interesting that you believe that the "ends justify the means" in Iraq, despite that war costing many multiples more civilian deaths than the Ukraine war. UNHCR reports 42,000 civilians wounded or killed since 2014 in Ukraine while the Iraq Body Count project has...
I will concede that Afghanistan is probably not an apt comparison, although I still believe the intervention was wrong. But would love to understand how Iraq was responsible for 9/11.
It is interesting that you believe that the "ends justify the means" in Iraq, despite that war costing many multiples more civilian deaths than the Ukraine war. UNHCR reports 42,000 civilians wounded or killed since 2014 in Ukraine while the Iraq Body Count project has documented almost 200,000 deaths in Iraq that war. This despite the fact that the population numbers are not too different.
I've not traveled to federally controlled Iraq, only Kurdistan a couple of times - it can hardly be considered democratic with two families controlling 99% of the economy and politics with at-times near civil-war tensions between the two. And that is despite the fact that Kurdistan has been strongly supported by the USA (yet it remains essentially a dictatorship)... one would think if democracy was the goal that the US could have used its leverage with some success over the last 20 years... but no.
Probably we can both agree that the overall goal should be peace and not geopolitical games - be they from Russia or the USA - that end up destroying or at least disrupting a generation of innocent lives.
I didn't say Iraq was responsible for 9/11. I'm saying that Bush wrongfully and immorally invaded Iraq under false pretenses, with the idea that the US could take advantage of 9/11 and the war on terror to go on a nation-building campaign against Middle Eastern dictatorships and theocracies.
Nor am I saying that the ends justified the means. I'm just pointing out that, unlike Russia's current conduct in Ukraine, the USA did generally try to...
I didn't say Iraq was responsible for 9/11. I'm saying that Bush wrongfully and immorally invaded Iraq under false pretenses, with the idea that the US could take advantage of 9/11 and the war on terror to go on a nation-building campaign against Middle Eastern dictatorships and theocracies.
Nor am I saying that the ends justified the means. I'm just pointing out that, unlike Russia's current conduct in Ukraine, the USA did generally try to avoid civilian casualties, didn't carry out a terror bombing campaign against civilians, and did result in a more stable, secure, and free state than it started. In that sense, we paid our reparations for trashing the country in the first place, while Russia is trying to have the cake in the form of territorial concessions and eat it too in the form of getting all their frozen assets back without paying reparations. I'll also point out that Iraq was an insurgency, making it difficult to tell friend from foe and the insurgents also had a penchant for car bombs and other indiscriminate weapons. Russia's drone and missile strikes can at least be weakened, if not stopped entirely, by Ukrainian air defenses, and Russia's terror bombing didn't even start until their overt invasion in 2022.
>the overall goal should be peace
Sure, but not at the cost of setting us up for ANOTHER war. We are in this position now because we did not take swift action to bolster Ukraine 3 years ago, and we let Russian brinksmanship dictate how we let Ukraine respond. Is it worth saving 10k more lives now if it means ANOTHER generation will be thrown into the fire in 2035, since Russia now knows it can get everything it wants despite being the unprovoked aggressor? Is 10k lives worth setting the precedent that the West won't intervene if China invades Taiwan? If Russia invades the Baltics? If China invades the Philippines?
Ukraine started this war and Russia will end it and Ukraine will be once again part of Russia since they are one and the same.
“If Russia wants to buy Boeing jets, they can find other money to use“, some people might agree with you Dusty. POTUS might even allow a sale via a third country. As long as they offload those suspect Boeing Max things, who will care?
They don't have any other money. Vladimir Vladimirovich stole it all.
Agree with @Dusty 110%