Putin’s presidential planes: what we know
When President Vladimir V. Putin travels abroad — as he did this week to North Korea and Vietnam to strengthen alliances and cultivate security ties amid Russia's war in Ukraine — he usually flies on Ilyushin Il-series jets 96 of Soviet design. With his latest trip coming shortly after plane crashes that killed two other world leaders, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran and Vice President Saulos Chilima of Malawi, a Kremlin spokesperson found it necessary recently to reassure the Russian public that Putin's planes were “very reliable. “ Although Russian airlines have abandoned Ilyushin models in favor of new Western…