FSB officers came to search the Federal Air Transport Agency. What interested the security forces in the department and how is this connected with Ukraine?

The Federal Security Service (FSB) conducted searches in the Federal Air Transport Agency in criminal cases regarding the illegal withdrawal from Russian jurisdiction of 59 civil aircraft and helicopters.

According to Izvestia sources, searches took place at the central office of the Federal Air Transport Agency on Leningradsky Prospekt in Moscow on February 7.

Several employees of the Federal Air Transport Agency became involved in criminal cases

The searches took place as part of criminal cases of negligence and abuse of power against several employees of the Federal Air Transport Agency. The defendants are suspected of illegally withdrawing 59 planes and helicopters from Russian jurisdiction. Some of them ended up in unfriendly countries and were used to provide military assistance to Ukraine.

Employees of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized documents from the offices of the two acting officers. Head of the Flight Safety Inspection Department Kristina Byvalina and Deputy Head of the Department of State Registration of Civil Aircraft, Rights and Transactions with Them Petr Kozyrev.

A criminal case under the article of negligence was opened against Kozyrev, Byvalina and her former deputy Anna Zhiltsova, who was fired from the agency in June 2023. Byvalina is also involved in a criminal case for abuse of power. However, the emergence of other suspects in the case cannot be ruled out.

The reason was last year's inspection of the activities of the Federal Air Transport Agency

The reason for initiating criminal cases was an audit of the activities of the Federal Air Transport Agency on state registration of civil aircraft and maintaining the corresponding register, carried out by the Ministry of Transport in July 2023. It turned out that after the start of the SVO, agency employees deregistered airplanes and helicopters in violation of presidential decrees and government regulations.

In particular, Rosaviation employees removed aircraft from the State Register of Civil Aircraft without complete sets of documents, provided contradictory and unreliable information about the location of aircraft outside of Russia, and did not request information from other departments about permits issued to aircraft owners.

As a result, between March 2022 and June 2023 (when Rosaviation was headed by Alexander Neradko), 59 aircraft illegally left Russian jurisdiction. Of these, 36 aircraft were sold abroad. 21 aircraft were purchased by residents of states outside the EAEU, eight of them were sold to unfriendly countries.

Several removed aircraft assisted Ukraine

Several aircraft illegally deregistered and exported outside Russia began to assist Ukraine during the SVO, in particular, Il-76 aircraft and Mi-8 helicopters. Three helicopters took part in the air defense on the enemy side, and the Il-76s made flights with the transponders turned off, which makes it possible to hide information about the routes.

As Oleg Smirnov, a former military pilot and ex-Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation, explained, even if the Il-76 is used by a civil airline, it can be quickly converted to transport military cargo and soldiers.

The story with the boards could have caused Neradko’s resignation

According to the newspaper’s interlocutors, this story was the main reason for the resignation of the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Alexander Neradko, in September 2023. They do not rule out that he may also become one of the defendants in this criminal case.

In December 2022, security forces conducted a search in Neradko’s office. According to Shot, one of its reasons was a bribery case against the deputy head of the department of digital transformation and support of the Federal Air Transport Agency Tatyana Kocherova. The 27-year-old official took this position several months before the search and was suspected of receiving a bribe.

The Federal Air Transport Agency then denied information about the searches. At the same time, the investigation asked to send the deputy head of the digitalization department of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Alexander Matyushkin, to a pre-trial detention center in a bribery case. The investigation also asked to arrest businessman Ivan Larionov in this case.