Flight TV — general aviation TV from Russia

highflyer I suppose AOPA Russia (mailaopa.ru — write them, since they don’t have English version of their website) and Federation of Amateur Aviation (FLA RF — facebook.com/flarfru) are much better source of practical information than I am, as well as they capable of practical assistance. 100LL and B-91/115 are available at at least half of private airfields if not more (100LL is a bit less popular here than you may expect because a lot of people fly aircraft with Rotax 912/914 engine that consume regular A-95/98 car gasoline, and the majority of the rest use B-91/115 — Cessnas with Lycoming engines are less popular here than you may expect).

We’ll do some sort of brief introduction on how foreign private pilot can get to Russia — I heard you about that and already gave a task to the writer to work on such feature — but we won’t produce step-by-step manual for because it’s too costly for us: 30-minute movie for several dozen people is beyond our possibilities unless it’s a commercial order (and that won’t happen, I guess). I’m not a pilot myself, if you didn’t get that yet… nor I have means to become one in foreseeable future for reasons at least financial if not any other.
You surely can fly IFR here, but then you’ll be treated as something like business jet, and your expenses will be like that of business jet owner.

To be short: Mathias Rust did really bad job back in 1990. Exceptionally bad. And now since then everyone here feels the backfire of it.

@Dimme Regulations, of course, сould never stop M.R., but Soviet military and KGB see small private aircraft as almost personal threat since then, and behave accordingly.

Russia is definitely the ICAO member. Moreover, it is the member of the Council. It could not be otherwise, because ICAO is the UN sub-organization and Russia (as the heir and caretaker of the USSR) is one of six founding and permanent UN members, it can’t be excluded from the UN unless it disintegrates to naught, and that won’t happen in foreseeable future. Moreover, Russian is one of UN (and, hence, ICAO) working languages, which are six (English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Mandarin). ICAO regulations though are not restrictive or imperative about local policies regarding private aviation: Mainland China (PRC) is ICAO member as well, but there is almost no general aviation there in a sense we all here are used to… at least yet. Maybe you mean the EU/EEA conventions on subject, not ICAO, and in that case you’re absolutely right, Russia never did sign them as it is not a member or even associate of the EU, and until at least government (in global sense, not cabinet) and even the whole national mindset changes, it never will become one.

achimha wrote:

in respect of scheduled international air services

Also, had Russia signed that, it would be left without transit flyover payments… that make up to 70% of Aeroflot’s budget (allowing it to remain normal airline without discounter quirks, with proper safety procedures and with regularly updated fleet). Russia is the only country that charges foreign airlines for passage over its territory (mostly for trans-polar flights).