- Dozens of private jets belonging to Russian oligarchs have been effectively grounded in Dubai.
- The Wall Street Journal reported the accumulation of more than 100 planes at Dubai airports.
- Dubai may seem like a safe haven for luxury assets, but sanctions are effectively restricting their use.
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Private planes belonging to Russian oligarchs who flew to Dubai to seek refuge from sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remain virtually there, according to The Wall Street Journal.
This has led to the accumulation of more than 100 planes that have been idle at Dubai’s airports since the start of the war. The newspaper cites satellite imagery and data from aerospace research firm WINGX.
According to the WINGX website, “with 49 outbound flights in the first week of March, the Russia-UAE connection is three times busier than before the pandemic, but only two-thirds of the outbound activity in the last week of February.”
Satellite imagery taken by Earth imaging company Planet Labs also shows an accumulation of private jets from mid-February to early April, according to The Journal.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Western nations banded together to punish Russia for its actions by imposing a series of sanctions. The sanctions were aimed at destabilizing not only the Russian economy, but also some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies.
Sanctions against many Russian oligarchs and billionaires have confiscated some of their most luxurious assets. Last month, for example, Gibraltar seized a $ 75 million superyacht owned by billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky.
Some of Russia’s richest have sought refuge in places that have not imposed sanctions, including Dubai and the Maldives.
In March, four private planes were spotted leaving Moscow for Dubai, according to flight tracking site Flightradar24. Unlike Western destinations, Dubai has not banned Russian air traffic.
However, as these planes fly to Dubai to evade sanctions, they end up crashing there because Russian plane owners cannot fly them anywhere else, aviation lawyers and private jet brokers told The Journal.
“Many of the planes connected to Russia have moved to the UAE because you can fly in the airspace there,” said Steve Varsano, CEO of a London-based private brokerage firm. “But once you get there, you’re almost grounded because you can’t maintain planes.”
The US Department of Commerce recently imposed sanctions that prevent Russian-linked aircraft from being loaded, maintained or repaired. Major airlines, including Boeing and Airbus, also stopped supplying spare parts to Russian airlines as a result of the war.
Experts recently commented on sanctions against the oligarchs, with one telling CNN that he thought they were largely “symbolic”.
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