Politics aside, this has to be one of the most interesting weeks in a long time when it comes to unique airplanes in United States airspace. While I wrote about the first plane from this “convoy” yesterday, I want to take an updated look, as we have a lot more details…
In this post:
Convoy of Russian government jets fly to Alaska
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are expected to have a meeting today (Friday, August 15, 2025) in Anchorage, Alaska, at around 11AM local time. They’re supposed to talk about the Russia and Ukraine conflict, but given how short the meeting will be, it seems like the best case scenario is that there could be plans for a second meeting.
As you’d expect, this meeting involves a lot of logistics. Alaska is a convenient halfway point between Washington and Moscow, though since it’s on US soil, I imagine that Russian security forces are on high alert.
As a result, it’s not just Putin and his advisors flying in from Russia, but also all kinds of other government staff. On Thursday, August 14, 2025, we saw three Russian-built Ilyushin Il-96-300s belonging to the government’s fleet land at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC):
- The nine-year-old plane with the registration code RA-96023 operated from Moscow (VKO) as flight RSD381
- The 16-year-old plane with the registration code RA-96019 operated from Moscow (VKO) as flight RSD171
- The nine-year-old plane with the registration code RA-96022 operated from St. Petersburg (LED) as flight RSD411
All of those flights took roughly 10 hours. As you’d expect, the aircraft were over Russian airspace for most of the journey, flying over land and then over the East Siberian Sea, prior to crossing the Bering Sea and then entering United States airspace. Of course ordinarily, Russian registered aircraft couldn’t use United States airspace. However, there are special exceptions for these flights.
The two planes that came from Moscow ended up departing shortly after they landed, and returned to Russia. However, they headed for a closer airport — they flew to Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky (PKC), which is only roughly a four hour flight away.
I’m curious about the logic for that. Was the Russian government just not comfortable parking the planes in Anchorage for 24+ hours, and instead wants to keep the planes at one of the closer major Russian airports? Or were the planes only needed to drop people off, but not pick them up…?
As far as Putin goes, he’s believed to be on a six-year-old Tupolev Tu-214 with the registration code RA-64531, operating as flight RSD539. He’s only making the short journey from Magadan (GDX), and that plane is expected to land at Elmendorf Air Force Base (EDF), which is also where the meting is taking place. That’s only a 1,957-mile flight, so it should only take around four hours. After the meeting, he’s expected to depart immediately.
As noted by OMAAT reader Ross, the security protocols that will be used today are quite interesting, as reported by Bloomberg:
State Department protocol is shaping much of the plan. In a bilateral meeting, officials said, reciprocity rules mean every courtesy extended to one leader must be matched for the other. Russian security will control Putin’s immediate movements while the Secret Service maintains an outer ring.
Neither side will open the other’s doors or ride in the other’s vehicles. If 10 US agents are posted outside a meeting room, 10 Russian agents will stand on the other side. Everything is matched body for body, gun for gun, one person said.
That symmetry will extend from the arrival motorcade to the placement of translators in the room. Both sides will bring their own language teams.
Planes fly from Russia to the US with some frequency
While these are certainly the most high profile and widely publicized Russian flights landing in the United States in quite some time, the Russian government’s fleet of Ilyushin Il-96-300s actually make it to the country with some frequency. Every several months, we see one of these planes operate a triangle route from Moscow to New York to Washington and back to Moscow.
These special flights are possible in order to “cycle” Russian diplomats, since they can only be in the United States for so long. Perhaps an even more interesting flight was in March 2022, when a Russian government jet flew from St. Petersburg to Washington. That flight had a more exciting backstory, as its purpose was to pick up 12 expelled Russian intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission, who were accused of espionage.
As an avgeek, I can’t help but be fascinated by these flights. While I can’t personally vouch for how accurate this is, below is a video about what one of these government jets that’s frequently flown by Putin is actually like.
Bottom line
We’ve seen quite the convoy of Russian government jets flying to Alaska over the past 24 hours. Yesterday we saw three Russian government Ilyushin Il-96-300s land in Anchorage from Moscow and St. Petersburg. In a couple of hours, we shouls also see a Tupolev Tu-214 land in Anchorage, with Putin onboard.
Politics aside, as an aviation geek, I find these Ilyushin and Tupolev planes to be very cool, and I wish I could fly on one…
What do you make of these interesting Russian government jets?
I sit here in Moscow oblast near DME in the evening. Watching jets of all races; Tupeolev. Yak, sukhoi Boeing airbus etc.
This is a great Country.
I wish peace prevails and eastern Ukraine becomes part of Russia.
Then we lick our wounds and calm down.
I hope you are not a US citizen. If you are, you should be hanged for treason the next time you are back in America.
"and I wish I could fly on one"
Ask VT-Proxima for help. He specializes in wishes and imaginations.
An unfortunate guest to be "hosting" but interesting aircraft for sure.
The FAA has said that ground stops are possible for ANC tomorrow.
Because transpacific flights start hours in advance and even flights from SEA are multiple hours long, the biggest impact is likely to be flights within AK including at the sea base which is very much operational this time of year.
Not one, but three different IL-96 planes landed in ANC as of August 14 afternoon.
From Bloomberg:
State Department protocol is shaping much of the plan. In a bilateral meeting, officials said, reciprocity rules mean every courtesy extended to one leader must be matched for the other. Russian security will control Putin’s immediate movements while the Secret Service maintains an outer ring.
Neither side will open the other’s doors or ride in the other’s vehicles. If 10 US agents are posted outside a meeting room, 10 Russian agents will stand...
From Bloomberg:
State Department protocol is shaping much of the plan. In a bilateral meeting, officials said, reciprocity rules mean every courtesy extended to one leader must be matched for the other. Russian security will control Putin’s immediate movements while the Secret Service maintains an outer ring.
Neither side will open the other’s doors or ride in the other’s vehicles. If 10 US agents are posted outside a meeting room, 10 Russian agents will stand on the other side. Everything is matched body for body, gun for gun, one person said.
That symmetry will extend from the arrival motorcade to the placement of translators in the room. Both sides will bring their own language teams. Even the number and size of hold rooms — secure waiting areas for each leader — are being negotiated.
The Secret Service is still waiting for Russia to formally approve the full security plan, the people said.
Putins Plane probably RSD411 (RA-96022), came from VKO (St. Petersburg)
Is that aircraft safe to fly? For one, I am not sure if Putin wants to be in there, and for another does the aircraft pass the safety requirements for the us? Or is there an exemption for foreign diplomatic flights?
Wonder if our ATC greeted the commies with a "Free Ukraine" 'instruction' ...
By Friday afternoon Alaska time we will learn that Trump is selling Alaska back to Russia for $7.2M plus one additional vote for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Niemals.
In den 1950ern warnte in Alaska die DEW, die Distant Early Warning Radarkette gegen russische Atombomber. Der sog. 50 Staat ist gleichzeitig ein Pufferstaat zwischen Russland und CONUS Continental USA.
Eher wird er Rus-USA Firmen gründen um in Alaska und Russland gemeinsam mit Russland Rohstoffe zu schürfen.
DEAL, BABY, DEAL.
I had an opportunity to fly on a Cubana Il-96 and in Cubana's configuration is a remarkably comfortable aircraft. A little slow off the runway but I was rather impressed. Cubana's inflight service and catering was different but not bad
Air miles Moscow to Washington DC : 4,867
Air miles Moscow to Anchorage: 4,375
Too bad Trump has to travel 3,400 miles to meet a guy who could make it to the White House in only an hour more of flight time.
If Putin flew over Europe, they might shoot him down.
As they should.
Is this the first time Putin sets foot on US territory? Isn't he eligible to be arrested then, given the warrants against him? The world's two biggest gangsters are he and Trump.
"Isn't he eligible to be arrested then, given the warrants against him?"
The US isn't a signatory to the treaty recognizing the ICC.
His eighth trip to the US. You have to come here to get to the UN General Assembly, remember. His last trip was 2015. He met with Obama, who criticized him for invading Ukraine and supporting Assad in Syria.
Putin is a bonafide gangster. Trump is barely a mid-level grifter.
Can you book a flight on it with points? If not then please stick to practical travel related topics.
Why would you click on a story you aren’t interested in? Just skip over it in the future. Not every blog post will be what YOU want to read.
I was an A340 when the 747 wasn’t cool!
Awesome looking airplane be it thirsty and solid.
This apparently was the plane caught trafficking cocaine out of Argentina a year or so ago.
Interesting that it "diverted" from EDF to ANC just before landing. Normally when a government VIP plane lands in ANC rather than EDF, it is parked on the south side of the airfield, very close to the perimeter (somewhat near Lynden Air Cargo on the map).
Today's first arrival instead parked in an area typically used by international cargo flights that are in transit, but not loading/unloading much. Anyone who airside in the terminal...
Interesting that it "diverted" from EDF to ANC just before landing. Normally when a government VIP plane lands in ANC rather than EDF, it is parked on the south side of the airfield, very close to the perimeter (somewhat near Lynden Air Cargo on the map).
Today's first arrival instead parked in an area typically used by international cargo flights that are in transit, but not loading/unloading much. Anyone who airside in the terminal is getting a once in a lifetime direct view at the moment.
As mentioned earlier, it's the first of a few inbound arrivals. FR24 shows two more in the air, RSD171 and RSD308. What a crazy week.
Well thank God SOMEBODY in this godforsaken admin had the good sense at the last minute not to let a Russian jet probably loaded with SIGINT equipment land at a major USAF base.
"Sanction every Russian bank and every international bank that does business with Russian banks, the Russian government, or Russian oligarchs. We know who, and they'll cry uncle."
So the base goes on EMCON / Emissions Control.
Hope we see an end to all American involvement in this Ukraine war, financial or otherwise. This is not America's problem......Ukraine has already lost territory from over a decade ago and they need to face the fact that they aren't getting it back anytime soon. If the Europeans care so much, let them deal with this.
Oh look a Putin whor*.
For every onlineblowj*b to Vlad he gets 500 points. 2000 points get you a free flight (out of a window).
Sanction every Russian bank and every international bank that does business with Russian banks, the Russian government, or Russian oligarchs. We know who, and they'll cry uncle.
But that'll never happen because the party of Reagan elected a Russian puppet.
"Sanction every Russian bank and every international bank that does business with Russian banks, the Russian government, or Russian oligarchs. We know who, and they'll cry uncle."
Trump tried to restrict proxy trading of Russian oil by tariffing India but that was looked down on by the left.
@Jeff
You realize WE pay the tariff on Indian goods, not India, right? Please tell me you at least understand that much. And if you get that, you can answer your own question as to WHY the left rightfully said that was a dumb idea.
"You realize WE pay the tariff on Indian goods, not India, right? Please tell me you at least understand that much."
Tariffs impact the economies of both nations negatively. The goal is to hurt India enough to stop while we bare out the pain, something that was supported by Biden when Russia first invaded.
But what would have been your solution to get India from purchasing contraband oil?
@Jeff
Cut the crap. We're not about to stop importing tea, linens, clothing, etc. from India. Especially not when Trump's also tariffed all the OTHER suppliers of those items. End of the day, we pay more and India can find other buyers to pick up the slack as we buy less. The tariffs will hurt us far more than it hurts anybody we tariffed.
As for how to prevent them, first part comes from...
@Jeff
Cut the crap. We're not about to stop importing tea, linens, clothing, etc. from India. Especially not when Trump's also tariffed all the OTHER suppliers of those items. End of the day, we pay more and India can find other buyers to pick up the slack as we buy less. The tariffs will hurt us far more than it hurts anybody we tariffed.
As for how to prevent them, first part comes from my initial post. Any bank running transactions for Russia gets sanctioned. We also would sanction the rest of the ships in Russia's dark fleet that's actually handling the open-sea transfers. Many of these have lapsed registrations, meaning they're stateless. The navy could quite literally intercept and commandeer those those tankers. And I realize India isn't the only one technically breaking the sanctions, many EU owned/flagged/registered ships are carrying Russian oil too, and we'd also lean on those countries and companies to cut it out. For India in particular, because after all they do need oil, we could subsidize exports from our own refineries destined for India as a good faith measure. With regards to Biden, he floated the idea of punitive tariffs but AFAIK never put them into effect for what should be obvious reasons.
That all being said, those things require a spine, good will from other nations, and a modicum of intelligence in order to implement. None of those things are currently in the White House. Trump has burnt all the good will the US had, and his trade war BS is a thinly veiled tax hike on the average American not a foreign negotiating tool.
You’re white trash.
The problem is that Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize. Rubio and Bessent just pointed out to him that the Committee that grants the award is appointed by the Norwegian parliament. Same people who are funding NATO and Ukraine. Putin, meanwhile, has no plans to bring back the Lenin Peace Prize.
They're afraid, however, to tell Trump that three of the five Peace Prize committee members are women.
Elmendorf AFB ceased to exist in 2010, when it became part of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Gross. Shoot it down!
Someone needs a lay
Speaking of: I am currently sitting in J on an SU A350 and you have to try it Lucky. Hard product aside (AI & TK have it) the soft product is nothing short of surreal. Genuinely, Lanson poured at your seat as a PDB, excellent amenities, amazing crew, I think it would sneak into your top 5 business class products.
Anyhoo, I know it’s not really the time to visit Russia per se, but hoping you review it if the situation improves.
Why are you in Russia? Disgusting.
Russians are an amazing people!
Yay! Another Surrender Summit!
Trump knows who he works for.
"Yay! Another Surrender Summit!"
Its obvious that Ukraine is slowly losing the war and the question needs to be asked why we need to keep funding a lost cause. While Ukraine has a right to decide if it accepts the terms of any deal, as Americans we have a right to determine if we fund this exercise in futility.
@Jeff
First, there's a huge difference between Russia successfully occupying Donbas and Russia actually taking over Ukraine. Russia's manpower issues are so acute that they're having to coerce civilians into signing contract papers, plus the whole North Koreans bit, while importing Indian laborers to shore up their domestic industries.
Second, the vast majority of the aid we've given to Ukraine is older mothballed vehicles and weapons near the end of their shelf life. Most...
@Jeff
First, there's a huge difference between Russia successfully occupying Donbas and Russia actually taking over Ukraine. Russia's manpower issues are so acute that they're having to coerce civilians into signing contract papers, plus the whole North Koreans bit, while importing Indian laborers to shore up their domestic industries.
Second, the vast majority of the aid we've given to Ukraine is older mothballed vehicles and weapons near the end of their shelf life. Most of the actual cash given to Ukraine, which to be clear has been a miniscule portion of the aid, has come from seized Russian assets not the American taxpayer. Many of the billions of dollars of Ukraine aid went into OUR OWN DOMESTIC COMPANIES to expand production of munitions. IE, we invested in our own industry and workers to make stuff to sell and enlarge our stockpiles for future conflicts. All that was done under Biden. Trump is just rolling over and setting the stage for Putin to grab Narva 5 years down the road.
We could do far more against Russia just economically, but at this point Trump is more likely to just hand him Alaska and STILL let him keep Crimea.
"First, there's a huge difference between Russia successfully occupying Donbas and Russia actually taking over Ukraine."
You don't need to take the entire control over if you hollow out its population or its fighting age males. You do realize that demographic decline exists, right?
"Many of the billions of dollars of Ukraine aid went into OUR OWN DOMESTIC COMPANIES to expand production of munitions. IE, we invested in our own industry and workers to...
"First, there's a huge difference between Russia successfully occupying Donbas and Russia actually taking over Ukraine."
You don't need to take the entire control over if you hollow out its population or its fighting age males. You do realize that demographic decline exists, right?
"Many of the billions of dollars of Ukraine aid went into OUR OWN DOMESTIC COMPANIES to expand production of munitions. IE, we invested in our own industry and workers to make stuff to sell and enlarge our stockpiles for future conflicts."
So we funded the military industrial complex that the left is (or was) so critical about?
"Trump is just rolling over and setting the stage for Putin to grab Narva 5 years down the road."
A Gallup poll indicated Ukrainians are willing to accept a negotiated peace with territory lines being what they are at on the current battlefield. Victory for Ukraine is impossible and I don't think Ukrainians are clamoring to be like the Japanese citizens prior to that countries surrender in WWII (they trained children and women to run at tanks with explosives).
Unless Ukraine is willing to commit to that level of total war, this conflict is endless.
"We could do far more against Russia just economically, but at this point Trump is more likely to just hand him Alaska and STILL let him keep Crimea."
They why did the media and the left criticize Trumps tariffs on India for participating in a scheme to buy restricted Russian oil?
>You don't need to take the entire control over if you hollow out its population or its fighting age males. You do realize that demographic decline exists, right?
You realize Russia is in an even worse demographic hole than Ukraine is, and unlike Russia Ukraine is intentionally drafting older people to fight rather than young men that actually have long productive futures ahead of them?
>So we funded the military industrial complex that the...
>You don't need to take the entire control over if you hollow out its population or its fighting age males. You do realize that demographic decline exists, right?
You realize Russia is in an even worse demographic hole than Ukraine is, and unlike Russia Ukraine is intentionally drafting older people to fight rather than young men that actually have long productive futures ahead of them?
>So we funded the military industrial complex that the left is (or was) so critical about?
Big difference between being critical of misguided nationbuilding and actually keeping the military capable of dissuading actors like China or Russia from invading our smaller partners.
>A Gallup poll indicated Ukrainians are willing to accept a negotiated peace with territory lines being what they are at on the current battlefield.
Then post it. If you're looking at the one I'm looking at, you're being intentionally misleading because the poll question was "are you open to a negotiated peace with territorial concessions". And even then, I'll be you that answer changes if there's no real guarantee that they'll be protected from a future Russian invasion. They know a Budapest Memorandum 2.0 isn't worth the paper it'd be written on.
>Unless Ukraine is willing to commit to that level of total war, this conflict is endless.
The US has plenty of economic levers it can pull for one, and for two additional weapons (especially artillery and artillery ammunition) would essentially freeze the frontline.
>They why did the media and the left criticize Trumps tariffs on India for participating in a scheme to buy restricted Russian oil?
I am begging you, google "who pays a tariff". Tariffing India doesn't hurt India, it hurts US. There's much better ways to get Indian compliance in this than charging US consumers extra for buying Indian-made goods.
Russia is worse than Iran. Ukraine is more important than Israel. Why MAGA likes Russia and Israel but considers Ukraine disposable is just beyond comprehension.
They’re cult members. They have no core beliefs, other than Trump supremacy.
You mean Vietnam?
"I imagine there could be several Russian jets headed to Anchorage."
Another Il-96 departed VKO about an hour ago at time of writing. RSD171 is showing as en route to ANC rather than EDF arriving around 3pm Anchorage time.