The US Department of Justice has announced that the US authorities have issued a warrant for the arrest of the Boeing 737 (RA-73455) plane allegedly owned by Rosneft for approximately $25 million. According to a statement issued by the agency, the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York authorized the seizure of the aircraft due to violations of the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) and the sanctions imposed on Russia.
The report states that the sanctions expand bans on export, re-export, and transfer of US-made aircraft to Russia without an appropriate license, as well as on the use of US-made aircraft without a valid license that are under Russian control or owned by Russian citizens.
“Since February 2022, when export controls went into effect prohibiting the re-entry of U.S.-built aircraft into Russia, the plane has departed and returned to Russia at least seven times in violation of federal law. The Boeing aircraft, which was manufactured in the United States, was last in the United States in March 2014, and is now believed to be in Russia,” the document states.
Open sources know that from March 28, 2014 to March 28, 2022, the operator of the B737 business jet (reg. OE-IRF) was ART Aviation, an Austrian company providing business aviation services. After the introduction of the anti-Russian sanctions in March last year, the aircraft was transferred to Utair and received the Russian registration RA-73455.
In mid-August 2022, this aircraft delivered the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, to South Africa. While in Cape Town, he also flew briefly to Lanseria airport and spent just over three hours in Gauteng. Here Sechin was able to meet and hold talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandora.
Lawrence MacDonald, a member of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) parliament, claimed at the time that Sechin’s plane arrived at Lanseria International Airport Aug. 15 without passengers, just for refueling because the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) refused to refuel it in Cape Town because of Western sanctions against Russia.
On August 16, Lawrence MacDonald tweeted that “Never again will a Russian plane on South African soil be denied refueling at ACSA airports. I just stopped this nonsensical behavior. Svetlana Medvedeva and RA-73455 @RosneftEN, I apologize on behalf of @ACSA and South Africa.”
According to Flightradar24 this aircraft flew with the Utair airline code from Vnukovo airport on the route Moscow-Doha-Moscow on March 6-8.
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