They are the “new elite,” Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said. With this statement he meant the soldiers and especially the soldiers who are involved in the war of aggression against Ukraine. And the members of the military should also feel elitist. This apparently also applies to trips with Russian airlines.
At airports and on planes: Russian soldiers now receive “VIP treatment”
Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya last week ordered the country’s airlines to give priority to “participants in the military special operation” during check-in, security checks and boarding. So whoever fights gets VIP treatment.
The authority also warned against showing an “inappropriate attitude” towards soldiers, according to a document published by the Komersant newspaper. This is tricky in that this instruction is interpreted as meaning that military members should be allowed to do things that might otherwise fall into the Unruly Passenger category.
Bullying and smoking also allowed?
According to a report by the Russian independent newspaper The Bell, there have been around a dozen scandals and clashes with soldiers at airports and on planes since the turn of the year. In February, for example, fellow passengers on a flight from Moscow to Yakutsk persuaded the police not to arrest a rioting soldier. In another case, a veteran was kicked off a Pobeda flight for smoking, prompting the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastyrkin, to open a criminal case against the airline.
As a Russian airline executive explains to The Bell, these are merely “recommendations” the agency is using to try to guide its approach to further confrontations. However, it reads like an official instruction.
Other companies are now apparently wondering whether Rosaviatsiya’s recommendations could become a kind of blueprint for regulators in other sectors. Apparently there were also repeated incidents in restaurants and bars.