Members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's sanctioned inner circle are still flying Western-built luxury business jets, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). A network of European brokers buys the aircraft, registers them in countries that ignore sanctions, and then sends them to Russia. Western enforcement, meanwhile, has gone slack.

Sanctioned, but still flying Western jets

A $75 million Bombardier Global 7500 sits at Moscow's Vnukovo airport. The Canadian-built jet sells to the global super-rich, and close Putin allies fly aircraft like it. WSJ reviewed records from an aviation-data firm, import filings, and flight-tracker logs to map the pattern.

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Sergei Chemezov runs Rostec, Russia's state defense conglomerate, and has known Putin since their KGB days in East Germany. He has flown a Bombardier to Dubai, Türkiye, and Southeast Asia. Flightradar24 tracked roughly six of his UAE flights between October 2025 and January 2026. In Dubai, he holds a property fronting its own private beach on the Palm Jumeirah, the emirate's palm-shaped artificial island, Radio Free Europe reported earlier. Leaked financial files known as the Pandora Papers once tied him to estates in Spain.

The same circle, the same perks

Arkady Rotenberg, a boyhood judo partner of Putin's in St. Petersburg, built a fortune on state contracts. International sanctions have targeted him since Russia seized Crimea in 2014. He gained access to two Bombardier Global jets in late 2022. Flightradar24 shows them flying to Azerbaijan and the UAE.

Igor Kesaev made his money in tobacco and alcohol, then moved into retail and weapons. Forbes puts his fortune at $4.8 billion. The US and the EU blacklisted him after the invasion for helping arm Russia's military. In 2023, he brought in a jet-black Bombardier Global Express XRS, according to Ch-Aviation and Import Genius records.

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Until the all-out war, much of Russia's elite parked their jets with European management firms in tax havens like Switzerland and Luxembourg. The war cost them those deals, and sometimes the planes themselves. They gave up London, the French Riviera, and the Swiss chalets, and now head to the UAE, Türkiye, and Azerbaijan.

How the jets reach Russia

These days, sanctioned Russians reach Western aircraft by going through middlemen and broker firms. European dealers buy Bombardier and Gulfstream aircraft secondhand. They register them in places like the UAE, Oman, Kazakhstan, and South Africa, then fly them to Russia. Similar shadow schemes were tracked before.

The planes moved through a Vienna firm, Avcon, and its subsidiaries before landing in Russian hands. Chemezov's jet started out registered in Bermuda under Avcon's management. A firm called Tarp Aviation later moved it onto Russia's registry. A separate Vienna-based fiduciary, SecuTrust, holds shares in both Avcon and Tarp.

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