Investigation reveals Russian officials frequently using private jets, many funded by business allies
A Proekt investigation analyzed flight records of 1,064 senior Russian officials, finding that 322 regularly travel on private business jets, often at the expense of prominent businesspeople.
Proekt’s year-long analysis of a leaked FSB border service database, which tracks millions of departures from Russia between 2014 and 2023, focused on 1,064 senior officials. It found that 322 of them regularly fly on private business jets, with an average cost of $32,000 per flight. The most frequent users are LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky and Tatarstan head Rustam Minnikhanov, each logging around 350 trips that include family members.
The investigation also uncovered that 101 officials travel on planes likely supplied by prominent businesspeople, and that some officials use jets registered to state-owned firms for personal trips. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recorded the highest number of flights with such businesspeople, while figures like Sergey Kiriyenko and Andrey Vorobyov also appeared in the data. France emerged as the top destination among Western and Southern European countries visited by these officials.
Why it matters
It shows how senior Russian officials rely on private aviation funded by business contacts, raising concerns about transparency and potential conflicts of interest.
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