Russian President Vladimir Putin's special Il96-300PU aircraft took off from Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport to St. Petersburg at 14:16 Moscow time, according to Flightradar24 data.
About half an hour before the news broke, spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that Putin was working in the Kremlin. Peskov also denied information that Putin had boarded his plane to St. Petersburg.
The Il-96 is equipped with a command post for controlling the Russian Armed Forces. The destination of the flight is now not specified, as it turned off its transponder and went off the radar near Tver, 180 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of Moscow:
Putin’s Valdai residence is notably located in the Tver region.
Another Rossiya Special Flight Squadron flight, tail number RA-96022 (flight RSD523), landed in St. Petersburg, according to Flightradar24.
RA-64520 – Putin’s new Tu-214PU – also took to the air. The aircraft is also called the “doomsday plane”, as it functions as an air command post in case of a full-scale nuclear war.
