Tag Archives for russia.
An S7 airlines flight Tomsk to Moscow diverted Thursday morning to Omsk in Siberia after a passenger on board – opposition politician Alexei Navalny – fell ill. He became unconscious after an apparent poisoning, the second time he’s been poisoned. It’s believed that poison was placed into tea that he drank at the airport prior to departure.
Opposition to Vladimir Putin inside of Russia is dangerous, indeed.
Aeroflot has been circumventing the Russian government’s ban on international passenger flights, according to media reports, by selling tickets to passengers on flights officially labeled as cargo-only.
This has included “flights to New York, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Seoul and Tel Aviv since at least early June” according to airline sources.
Aeroflot was scheduled to operate a flight from Moscow to New York JFK on Friday, where it would carry home Americans and bring Russians back to their own country. Full of U.S. citizens desperate to get home in a time of crisis, the plane pushed back and taxied out to the runway only to be ordered back to the gate, the flight cancelled.
Russia closed its borders as the Aeroflot plane prepared to depart. The Russian government then boarded the plane and confiscated passports.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
