Canada expands sanctions against Russian aviation

The Canadian government has added the Russian cargo airline Volga-Dnepr and all its subsidiaries: AirBridgeCargo and Atan, as well as the Ural Works of Civil Aviation (UZGA), to the list of sanctions, reported the specialized publication Ch-Aviation on Friday.

Sanctions have also been introduced against Alexey Isaikin, the founder and until recently the owner of the Volga-Dnepr group of companies. Isaikin sold the company to its management in mid-2022 to avoid sanctions.

The Volga-Dnepr Group and its subsidiary airlines are not on the US or European Union sanctions lists, although they fall under general sanctions imposed on the Russian aviation sector. These sanctions prohibit any deals with Western companies.

Only the United Kingdom slapped personal sanctions on Isaikin.

In the first days of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, Canada seized one of the Volga-Dnepr planes, which is still at the Toronto airport. The Russian company was presented with an invoice of $223,000 to pay for the parking of the arrested plane at the end of 2022, the publication notes.

The Ural Works of Civil Aviation is included in the sanctions lists of the United States and the European Union for servicing the projects of Rostec, which is engaged in development in the field of military aviation.