Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters today: “Britain and other countries that encroached on Russian assets are obliged to unfreeze them immediately without any conditions.
“Otherwise, they violate all the norms and rules of both their domestic legislation and international law”.
In March 2023, the Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force, which is made up of big-hitting global powers such as the US, the UK and Germany, said that they will “redouble” their efforts to make Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates pay for their war in Ukraine.
REPO is a collaborative organisation between the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, the UK and the European Commission and was established in 2022 in order to watch out for sanctions evasion.
Such is the economic devastation being inflicted by the sanctions, Russian airline projects are reportedly in no state to present to buyers.
Head of Rostransnadzor, which oversees the Russian transport network, Viktor Basargin, reportedly told a Russian parliamentary committee meeting that sanctions has meant that essential safety equipment on domestic aircraft cannot be replaced.
According to the Kommersant newspaper, Mr Basargin said: “Several hundred unscheduled inspections of airlines…showed that companies operating western equipment have a shortage of components, problems with the supply of consumables.”
These comments come off the back of reports that Russia’s biggest airline, Aeroflot, has instructed its staff not to report missing or broken safety equipment.
In a statement, Aeroflot said: “All spare parts undergo strict incoming control for compliance with quality requirements, history of origin, and have the necessary certificates.”